It was mid-afternoon when they arrived back at the stronghold. It had been about eight hours since Jace had accelerated his MIMs to dawn and had sent Draya to school. She might be back now. As Jace was about to enter the front door to give Psycho a tour, a sound from their right caught his attention. Jace remembered that the last time he had shown up after a long absence, he had found the women frolicking in the heated pool. He assumed Esther was the one who would typically spearhead that kind of recreation, but the rogue was with him.
Psycho’s keen hearing picked it up to. “Are we late for a party?”
“Didn’t know I was throwing one,” Jace replied.
“It sounds like Draya and her classmates,” Esther said excitedly. Jace remembered the vampire had invited the two teenage boys to come back sometime in the future after goblins had almost killed them. Esther skipped along the path to the right and around to where the pool was. Snowy galloped at her heels.
Jace shrugged and followed, leading Psycho along behind him. “One of your companions is still in school? What is she learning?”
“How to be a dragon,” Jace replied.
“I see.” He didn’t, but the elf was eager to find out.
They saw Esther turn to the left through a gap in the stone cliff beside them and bound up a few steps to the raised plateau. Before she was out of view, she froze, looked at the gathering, and retreated just as quickly. She returned to the two males before they were even halfway to the opening. “No,” she said. “I don’t think we should bother them. They probably want their privacy.”
Jace gave her a questioning look. She couldn’t possibly be implying what he thought. Everyone was of age, but he would have thought Draya too timid even to invite boys back to her house, much less to engage in what Esther was hinting at. Jace initiated his human illusion and continued forward.
“Jace, please,” she said. “Let’s go in the front door. I will run around back and give them a chance to get decent, and then you can get mad at them.”
Something was wrong. Jace had been impressed with Esther’s acting skills an hour ago, but she was not as convincing now. “It is my house,” Jace said. “I have a right to know what is going on.”
Esther still held his arm. She was more than skilled enough to restrain him, but they both knew there would be consequences if she challenged him this openly, especially in front of Psycho. She reluctantly let him go. The sounds of male and female laughter were clear on the cool mountain air as Jace rounded the corner and climbed a few steps, holding his breath. As he and Psycho stood side by side, it wasn’t what they expected.
About 100 feet away, on the rock sand that served as a beach, two young men held sticks and attacked an unarmed male orc. The creature lunged half-heartedly at them, and they scampered back, countering by slapping the twigs at his upper body. It didn’t look effective, and Jace figured the orc had enough Damage Resistance to shrug off any attack the boys might muster. Trixna and Draya stood at a distance from the fighters, laughing and cheering them on. The human encouraged the boys, telling them to hit harder or dodge the strikes instead of running away. The orc priestess gave most of her instructions to her kinsman, telling him to go easy on them or not hit too hard. Everyone was fully clothed.
“I don’t see any issue with this,” Psycho said, glancing at Jace first and then at Esther. The woman refused to return his look. “I didn’t know you had more orcs living with you, though.”
“I only knew about the one,” Jace said gruffly. Then he saw it. The male orc was wearing a collar around his neck. Since Esther had started using the bracelet that enhanced her spell difficulty, he hadn’t noticed that she wasn’t wearing the control device with the green gemstone. He couldn’t remember the last time she had worn or used it.
“You knew about this,” Jace said, not looking around but aiming the statement at Esther. There was no question mark at the end of the comment. “You hid this from me.”
“Because we knew you would overreact,” she said, her eyes on the ground. “Just like you are about to.”
Psycho didn’t entirely understand but decided to take a few steps back to allow the companions to sort this out.
“How long?” Jace asked, his voice cold. “How long has there been an orc slave living in my house?”
Esther didn’t want to answer and kicked at a stone on the ground. Jace was pretty sure it was the orc they had not killed when he had freed the gnomes. He had released him into the wild and told him never to return. He knew that the orc couldn’t have left the module on his own, so he hoped that he might be killed or deleted by the game. If Esther didn’t want to answer his questions, Jace knew someone who would.
“Snowy, when did you track down the orc for Trixna?”
“There has been an orc sex slave in my house for five days?” Jace said. Psycho finally understood the tension and took several more steps back. In the distance, the five individuals were still laughing and playing, completely unaware they were being watched.
“You ignored her!” Esther said in a harsh whisper. “What was she supposed to do?”
“Talk to me,” Jace said. “She could have talked to me.”
“She did, you ignorant eunuch!” Esther refused to be the villain in this conversation. “She’s invited you to her bed every twelve hours you’ve been here. I don’t know how she could have been more clear about what she needed. You’ve given Draya and me so much equipment. You even went out there and got Gromphy to make more for us. What have you given to Trixna? What have you done for her? Since Zorn has been here, she has been much happier. I know you’ve noticed she has bothered you less. She still wants you to acknowledge her, but she isn’t starving anymore.”
“But it’s wrong,” Jace tried, less of an edge to his voice now as he realized this was likely a battle he would lose.
“Just because she needs things you disapprove of doesn’t mean she doesn’t need them. You might be an orc in the realms, but you have no idea what that means.”
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“I thought she’d get over it.” Jace finally looked back at Esther. “You did.”
“I did?” she looked perplexed.
“You used to tease me constantly, walking in front of me naked or half-dressed. You haven’t done that in a while.”
Twenty feet away, an elf coughed nervously. Jace and Esther ignored him.
“I don’t have the sex drive of a female orc. I saw you weren’t interested, and I stopped.”
“Or do you have a slave in your room too?” Jace asked, knowing he shouldn’t. He was just too frustrated with the situation to stop himself. “No, you probably have a secret lover down in Crestfall.”
“What if I did?” she replied. “How is that any business of yours?”
“What goes on in my house is my business.”
Esther rolled her eyes at him. “Get off your Traditional high horse. I know you hate when I kill people and Snowy eats them, but you let us do it because we need it. It’s who we are. If you take this away from Trixna, it will devastate her. She might not leave, but she will be worthless to you.”
{Jace,} Gracie said, having been a silent observer to the drama, {you don’t have time for this. The kidnappers’ deadline is up in two hours. Stephen and Allison have some of the information you requested. They have someone from the mining guild who will meet with you, and they dug up everything they can find about Draya’s past. You need to deal with this quickly.}
“But why the collar?” Jace said in a defeatist tone. “Why does he have to be a slave?”
“She told me they don’t use it when they . . .”
Jace held up his hand to stop her from having to finish, not needing to hear it out loud. He didn’t imagine there was an orc in the realms that would require much convincing to spend time in Trixna’s bed. So, he wasn’t really a sex slave. He was an everything-else slave. “Why the collar?” he repeated.
“Because . . .” Esther said, not wanting to finish. “Because . . . that is the only way Topper would agree to it. His people don’t feel safe. They’ve learned to live with Trixna, but males are too aggressive.”
Jace shook his head in defeat. “Did anyone other than me not know about this?”
“I didn’t know,” Psycho said quietly, raising his hand.
“Shut up!” Esther and Jace said to the elf. The pair turned back to look at each other for several long moments.
“What are you going to do?” Esther said.
Jace sighed. “You want me to be the fun, accepting, Progressive landlord? Fine. I can be fun. But the collar has to go.”
“Jace,” Esther said quietly. “I don’t trust him without the collar. I don’t want to sleep in a house with Zorn in it if he isn’t restrained.”
“I’ll fix that,” he replied. Jace went into his inventory and got his +3 large shield. He then turned around and walked along the pool's edge toward the beach, where the three males were still sparring. His presence didn’t stay a secret for long.
“Jace!” Draya shouted. “You’re back. We were just taking a break from homework. Trent and Alex wanted to learn how to fight, and Trixna let us borrow Zorn for a few minutes.”
The young woman looked pleasantly surprised to see him without a hint of embarrassment or concern. Trixna, on the other hand, looked horrified. Her left hand instinctively went to the control bracelet she wore on her right and pumped it full of mana. The male orc stood up suddenly and backpedaled away from the two boys and out of Jace’s direct line of sight. The shaman stared at the female orc and saw her eyes go past him to where Esther was likely standing. Her look was one of desperation that shouted, What should I do? The rogue didn’t have an answer.
Jace put on a false smile and walked up to the boys. “Good afternoon, gentlemen. I understand you want to learn to fight, but attacking someone without protection is wrong.”
“Oh, sir,” Trent stammered. “We weren’t hurting him. Miss Trixna said the sticks aren’t strong enough.”
“Yes, sir,” Alex added. “We aren’t very good either. Not like you and Miss Esther.”
Jace laughed. “That’s not what I meant. You won’t learn how to attack properly if you don’t learn to attack someone defending himself. Like this,” he raised his shield. “Now try and hit me.” They were hesitant at first, having heard from Draya how good a fighter Jace was, but he wasn’t holding a weapon, and after a few lazy strikes against his shield, they started to get into it.
Jace didn’t have any shield training, but he didn’t need it. With Trixna’s help, he had permanently cast his three totems inside the cavern. With a little of his blood added to a Presence ward, the totems always sensed his magical signature and never dispelled unless he dismissed them or they were used up. With his Armor skill, natural AC, shield, and the +16 from his totem, the boys had no prayer of hitting him even if he stood still. After a few minutes, Jace had shown them enough and leaned into one block, so the shield knocked Trent back. He wasn’t hit hard but flew to the powdery sand. Jace only faked a shove toward Alex, and the boy tripped on his feet and fell right next to his friend.
Draya laughed with glee, and Trixna even tried to chuckle, thinking that Jace might be overlooking her roommate choice. He wasn’t. The shaman turned to look at the orc standing over by the outer cavern wall. “Zorn, is it? Come over here and show these men how it’s done.” The orc didn’t move. “Trixna,” Jace said without turning to look at her. There was an edge to his voice sharper than Diamond Etcher. “Trixna, tell your friend to come over and attack me.”
The female orc couldn’t find her voice but had gotten good enough with the bracelet and collar that she didn’t have to speak to give commands. Zorn had no weapon and only wore a knee-length tunic that looked a lot like a starting character’s attire. Fittingly, Jace thought it resembled a Roman slave outfit. As the orc got closer, Jace cast his Athletic boon. He didn’t raise his shield and held it by his side as he Stood his Ground. The level 12 orc punched at the shorter human and needed a 16 to hit him. He didn’t get it. Once the orc’s character sheet was open to Jace, he made another exception and switched his alignment from Guile to Honest.
The change happened in a blink of an eye. Jace dropped his shield to the ground, sidestepped in the opposite direction of the punch, and wrestled the orc to his knees. Jace wasn’t as good as Esther, but with his superior strength and Athletic boon, he easily restrained the orc in a headlock. “Promise me on your life that you will always do exactly what Trixna tells you,” he whispered in his ear. “You will never harm a gnome or anyone else in my house. Is that clear?”
Only Zorn could hear Jace’s demands. Everyone else just assumed this was part of the demonstration. With his knees in the sand, Zorn was Helpless and couldn’t respond. Jace let up a bit and reduced his restraint to level three. “Promise me on your life,” he repeated.
Zorn nodded. “I promise,” he croaked. Jace released him and stood up. The orc stayed on his knees.
Jace smiled at his captive audience as if it had all just been fun and games. “See, men,” he said, addressing the two boys. “Fighting is a lot more than just waving sticks in the air.” They nodded furiously in agreement. He turned to Draya. “Now, were you finished with your homework or just taking a break?”
“A break,” she said, all smiles. She was thrilled that Jace had interacted with her friends in such a positive and accepting manner, utterly naïve to the underlying issue in play.
“Then you best get back to it. You and I are going on a trip in about twenty minutes. Wrap it up and say goodbye to your friends. Snowy can see them home if they don’t feel safe.”
The three youths hurried back into Esther and Draya’s room through the window, and Jace turned to Trixna. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip in the face of her furious leader. “I . . .” she started as Jace walked toward her. Even though he was half a head shorter than her now, he was still imposing. “I . . .” she tried again.
“You can keep him,” Jace said, stopping six feet from her. His voice was cold and absolute. “But the collar is gone. Understand?”
She nodded quickly.
“I never want to see it again.” She nodded again, and his tone softened. “I’m sorry I’ve been ignoring your needs. Next time come to me and ask.”
“I asked you plenty,” she said, a twinkle in her eye now that she knew the worst of it was over. “And the offer is still . . .”
“Find a different way to ask.”
Trixna didn’t really understand what that meant, and Jace wasn’t exactly sure he did either. He turned away from her and walked back toward Esther, Psycho, and Snowy, who hadn’t moved from the edge of the clearing.
“Never a dull moment?” Psycho asked as Jace walked past.
“You have no idea; come with me.”