The next morning I was sitting in my office when I heard the bell above the door ding. I looked out to see Marya helping her mother in. “Lady Tanya?” I asked. “What brings you here? Did you injure yourself?”
“Not exactly.” she responded. “Can we use a room?”
“Yes, of course. Right this way.” I lead the two of them to one of the nicer rooms and helped Lady Tanya onto the exam table. “So, what seems to be the trouble?”
“Well, this morning I had a very sick stomach, and vomited. And now my right breast is starting to hurt. I’m not sure if I pulled something, or.” she started to pull down her blouse but Marya stopped her.
“Mother! You can’t just show your breast to another man.”
“I shouldn’t need to see it, unless there are physical symptoms like bruising or stretch marks that might not be detected with my threads. Though it’s not like I haven’t seen it before, even if I was two or three at the time.”
She looked at me with a confused look. “You remember when you were two or three?”
I shrugged. “A few flashes. Like running away from you while you carried Marya on your back just to mess with you.”
“You were doing that on purpose? Do you realize how stressful that was?”
“I was bored, and wanted to play tag. But I stopped when you needed to start teaching her to walk.”
“I guess you did. So, about my case?”
“Sure, let me run some tests.” I held my hand over her abdomen and ran five detection threads into her. After about ten seconds I found a possible cause. I double-checked by holding my hand over her chest and, sure enough, my suspicion was verified. “Well, I know what’s wrong with you. You’re pregnant again. About a month and a half. Your breast is hurting because, for some reason, you are already producing milk on your right side, but not the left. You’ve been through two pregnancies already though. I’m surprised you didn’t realize that when you missed your cycle.”
“Well, Philip pulled a muscle in my back when we were...” Marya gave her a surprised look. “Uh, doing calisthenics, and I took a healing potion around that time, so I assumed that was why I missed the first one. And the last should have been a few days ago, but I thought I was just running late.” A known effect of healing potions is that, if taken just before the start of a woman’s cycle, it lessened or nullified the symptoms, so that was plausible.
“In that case, there isn’t really anything for me to do, other than to give you nutrition potions and tell you the baby’s sex.” Nutrition potions both contained large amounts of vitamins, minerals, protein, and complex carbohydrates, and would make your body absorb them more efficiently for the next several days.
“I’ll take the potions, but I don’t want to know the child’s sex yet. If I figure that out I might become obsessed with preparing for the baby. I definitely got like that with my first two girls.”
I nodded and got up to go get the potions when Marya followed me out of the room. “Can I talk to you in private for a minute?”
“Sure.” We went to my office, where I stored the potions, and I asked her what she wanted to talk about.
“Can you test me as well?” she asked.
“You just want a physical? Sure.” I ran my hands over her as she sat on the couch, checking throughout her body for anything wrong with her. No muscle, bone, skin, organ, or any other issue that I could see. She was in perfect health, though their was one organ that wasn’t exactly how I was expecting it. “So that’s why you wanted me to test you. Congratulations. You’re pregnant. I’m guessing the father is that quarter elf knight you’ve been flirting with? Judging by the child’s racial traits...”
I was expecting her to celebrate, but instead she started crying, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t out of joy. I sat down beside her and hugged her for a minute or so before she stopped crying enough to talk. “We snuck into the barracks one night when he was on duty. It only happened once, but when I went to talk to him the next day, he said he had no interest in talking with me again. He discarded me like used wrapping paper. And now...” she motioned to her stomach. “What am I supposed to do? I don’t even have a job.”
“About him running away the second he got what he wanted, I don’t know. It’s not illegal, even if it does make him a piece of trash. I do know that the courts take child support seriously, so you can get at least enough to raise the child from him if you sue him for it. As for a job, however, even though you’ve already turned down working for me as a healer, I have an idea for how to employ you.” Both she and Lady Tanya had gotten merchant certification so that they could get a job, but mother refused to hire either of them as she never really liked them. So Lady Tanya, with her cooking certification, got a job managing a chain restaurant for a merchant company. Marya was still looking for a job. “If you can meet me tonight after I get home we’ll go talk to Reginald and see what we can do.”
She sniffled a few times and dried her eyes. “Thank you.”
“Sure, anything for my little sister.” I said, then realized what I had said. “Uh, I mean because we were raised together, you’re like a little sister to me.”
She smiled. “I know what you meant. About a month after you started teaching me magic I told mother that I thought you were really cute, and she explained to me why pursuing you would be a very bad idea, informing me who my biological father is.”
I nodded. “I figured it out when I was practicing my detection threads on you. I went to confirm it, and Father lectured me on the same thing. At least Tanya didn’t suggest you visit a brothel.”
“Lord Virgil really suggested that?”
“Well, he thought I was desperate when I said I tested you and Persy with Mating Sense.”
She smiled. “Understandable.” We stood up and I went to the counter and pulled out an eight by eight box of nutrition potions.
“Take these with you. I want you and your mother to take two per week until two weeks after birth, ok? When you run out, just tell me or Persy and we’ll bring more of them home with us.”
She nodded. “How much do I owe you?”
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“The checkups were a silver each, but the potions are free for anyone that needs them.” Marya paid the two silver from a nearly empty coin purse and we left the office and walked back towards the room Lady Tanya was in. “Most of the ingredients come from flour, vegetables, fruit, beans, herbs, or even dirt. The only thing that costs more than a few coppers is the essence of digestion, which is only a silver for enough to make hundreds of potions. Alchemy students make these just to practice, because they are so cheap to make.”
“That does sound pretty cheap.” she said as we opened the door to the room.
“What sounds cheap?” asked Tanya.
“The potions I gave her for you to take. They can be made for a copper or so per batch of sixteen, and sell for four per copper at any alchemist or apothecary in town, so I gave her sixty four of them.”
“Oh, yeah, that is cheap.” I helped Lady Tanya stand up and she started reaching for her coin purse.
“Marya already paid. You get home and get some rest. Hopefully the potion will stop the morning sickness.” She nodded and the two of them left for the palace.
That night, after supper, Marya and I visited Reginald in his office. I knocked and he let us in. “Ah, Lord Cameron, Lady Marya. How can I help you?”
“It’s actually about the workshop. I know that both my business and mothers will be growing with Lord Shadowblade sending caravans through here regularly. I was wondering if you might need some help managing the workshop.” I motioned to Marya to indicate who would be his aid.
“Not at the moment, though I do have a suggestion. I much prefer the bookkeeping aspect of management to the personal interactions. Lady Marya, on the other hand, excels at the personal interactions. I can tell by the way she interacts with the servants.”
“That’s just because I used to be one of them, and can relate to them.”
“Which is my point. Might I suggest that I return to working for your mother full time, and Lady Marya takes over the management of the workshop?”
“Are you sure?” I asked. “I believe I was paying you more than mother was.”
“You were, but I am willing to sacrifice the extra few coppers a day if it means I can dedicate myself to charts and mathematics.”
I nodded. “Very well. In that case, do you mind visiting the workshop tomorrow morning?” I looked at Marya and she nodded. “Then Marya will come by the workshop early tomorrow morning so that you can introduce her to the team and what they are doing there. Once she is comfortable with the team, you may switch jobs.”
Reginald bowed. “Thank you, Lord Cameron.”
The next morning Samantha, Marya, Persy, Carolin, and I left the palace at the same time and decided to swing by the stables on the way out. Lord Philip had insisted on sending Pancho with Marya to protect her for her first day of work, and Samantha and Carolin had business in town, as they needed to secure more product for Samantha’s father to move when his caravan arrived in a few days.
Pancho ran out and jumped at me as I quickly cast Fire Resistance on my whole body. I fell to the ground, pinned by him, and he started licking me, the flames on his head just inches from my face. “Come on,” Marya said. “Down.” The two meter tall Cerberus got off of me and I knelt down and started to pet him.
“Doesn’t that hurt?” asked Samantha as she watched me pet the flaming neck of the monster.
“Kind of warm, but only like tea that’s a bit too hot. If you want to pet him, I can cast Fire Resistance on you too.”
“I’m afraid Muffin will get mad if she smells another monster on me.” she responded.
“Muffin?” asked Marya, and Samantha nodded.
“My combat summon monster. Do you want to meet her?” Samantha held her hand towards an empty patch of ground and an illusory magic circle appeared there. It started to glow and a creature that looked like a panther with a silver streak down its back seemed to phase its way through the ground. When it reached ground level Samantha ended the spell.
“Is that a razor-claw? It’s so cute!” Samantha nodded and Marya knelt down to pet it. The two meter tall pet closed its eyes and laid down, a look of contentment on its face.
“Can I pet her too?” asked Persy, walking over, only for the monster to open its eyes and stare at her. “Uh, Lady Samantha? What is she doing?”
“In the wild, razor claws hunt foxes as their main food source. She trying to figure out if you are a meal or person.”
“Can you please let her know I’m not a snack?”
“I could tell her you’re my pet. Hey, Cam, can I have Persy?”
“Depends on in what sense you’re are asking that question. I’m not transferring ownership, but if you meant something perverted, that’s up to Persy. I’m not so jealous that I would mind if you bring over another woman occasionally.” Carolin shook her head at the indecency of the suggestion and Persy blushed.
“This time I was just talking about ownership. Too bad. I’ve never made a pet contract with a beast person. Maybe I can buy one and try it.” Persy looked relieved when she said the first part. “Well, I’m going to send her back if you don’t mind. She is pretty taxing on my mana reserves when outside of a mana rich area. I’m actually having a stable near the mithril mines watch after her for that reason.” Marya nodded and stood up, and Samantha sent the monster back to its stall.
Persy looked disappointed at not getting to pet the giant cat, but quickly wiped the look off of her face. “We should probably get going Master.” she said to me, using an honorific she only uses when annoyed at me. “The clinic will open soon.”
“Right, well, shall we go?” With that we left the palace gate and entered the noble quarter.
A week later Marya took over as the full time manager of the workshop at two silvers per day. She did make one change, however. The apothecaries that were mixing the potions were having to stack and move the crates, and even load the wagons when Mother’s company sent someone by to pick them up. She wanted to bring in a cargo handler and, as it wasn’t a high skilled job, suggested that I buy a slave for the job. I suggested that we hire someone from the slums instead, but she didn’t like the idea. The issue was Trade Secrets. The employees had the condition that they not reveal the formula for any of our potions to anyone as a legally binding part of their contract, as they were directly involved with making it. It was unlikely, however, that a cargo hauler would even sign a contract, much less one that prevented them from talking about their job. A slave, on the other hand, is bound to not reveal their master’s secrets by a magical contract, and the Trade Secrets counted as their master’s secrets, especially if their master owned the Trade Secret.
So after work we talked to a reputable slave dealer that had come into my part of the clinic a week ago. Sure, it was for “the potion”, for a night with his mistress, but he paid without excuse or bargaining and I didn’t know another slave merchant. We told him that we were looking for a cargo hauler and possibly a security guard, as I would like someone to watch the shop at night. Marya added that she wanted a young woman that could work as a wetnurse for her so she could return to work sooner, which meant that, for nutritional reasons, the slave would need to be a humanoid, goblinoid, or human-like beastfolk.
After looking through a thick folder of slave documents, he brought out two pages with full body drawings of the women, including nude ones. I knew that it was because most young female slaves were at least occasionally expected to perform ‘other’ duties, but ignored those particular drawings.
The first woman was a brown haired, tanned skinned nineteen year old Cow beastfolk. Her only animal features were two large forward curved horns and a tail, the horns being the result of her father being a Minotaur. She had also inherited the Minotaur’s fabled strength, so she was perfect for the role. Marya, however, didn’t like the fact that she had horns, as that could endanger the baby. The cow woman had Swordsman certification as she was originally trained as a caravan guard like her father, and was currently in training for her Spearmanship certification as well. This was one reason the slave dealer was known for selling high quality slaves, he was willing to get them certification training to increase their value.
The second was a criminal slave, a one and a half meter tall, black haired stocky twenty three year old half human half dwarf refugee. She had broken into a food warehouse and stolen a huge amount of food for the other refugees in her group, using a magic backpack, and been sentenced to two years for her crimes. She was currently working in the mithril mines, but would be transferred here once sold. Marya much preferred the half dwarf woman. As far as the merchant knew here only certification was as an Adventurer, as that was the identification card she had on her when arrested, but she refused to tell him about any other certifications she had.
Marya and I talked about it for a little while and decided that I would buy both. The Dwarf woman would live at the workshop, sleeping in one of the storerooms that were used for storing lumber when it was a furniture workshop, and the Cow woman would live in the clinic, sleeping in one of the extended stay patient rooms we hadn’t needed yet. That way, they would be able to work during the day and stay there for security during the night.
It took him three days to get the women ready for transfer, as he needed to have the dwarf woman brought here and wanted to finish the training of the cow woman. When we returned, though, we saw them in person. The Cow woman was named Cena, and the Dwarf was named Hogan. “So, I take it you’re expecting me to service you at night?” the half dwarf snarked. “You bloody nobles and your...” she grabbed her head suddenly and stopped talking.
“I already have a girlfriend, so no. Instead, we’ll have the two of you working in my businesses and staying there at night to provide security. I take it the slave contract is why you got a migraine?”
“What do you think?” she snapped, but I could tell that the pained look on her face was lessening.
“Her victim was a noble,” said the slave merchant, “A knight. Which is why she targeted that warehouse. She hates nobles. So a restriction against speaking poorly of nobles was added to her contract.”
I nodded. “Well, we aren’t all sorry excuses for a lifeform. Some of us treat people well, even our slaves. In fact, I’ll let you talk with Persy, a Fox woman I’ve owned for seven years. She’ll tell you how well I treat her.”
“Please, we both know why men buy Cat and Fox women.”
“She was six and I was eight when I bought her, and I did so because I needed a maid. And I haven’t laid a hand on her since.”
“You mean it?” asked the Cow girl. “My last master, well, he wasn’t the worst, but sometimes he drank too much and I was available, so...”
“If you wish, I’ll sign a magical contract with both of you that I will allow you complete freedom in choosing your sexual partners. I made Persy the same promise, as well as a promise that I wouldn’t hit her unless she betrayed me, and I’ve held up my end of the agreement.”
The short humanoid woman shrugged. “We’ll see. So, can we get the transfer over with? I’m tired working in the mines. I’d much rather haul cargo and work security. Being underground gives me the creeps.” I ignored the seeming strangeness of a Dwarf that didn’t like being underground and nodded for the ceremony to begin. Five minutes later ten gold was exchanged, and I was their new master. We brought them back to the clinic, where they spoke to Persy for over an hour, then to the workshop, where we showed Hogan what her job would be. Now they would know where both of the locations were in case we needed them to deliver anything. We also took them by the Palace and introduced them to the servants, in case they were every assigned here, and I took Cena with me to the clinic while Hogan went with Marya to the workshop.