Chapter 10: The Master

As much as Aisling actually wanted to go back home, she could not escape a boat. And if anyone wants to argue, you can talk to the hand. But in any case, she had been in this cage for the majority of her slave-hood. That didn’t really sicken her as much as it should have.

She had been let out to get some sun as she was a very valuable slave, but she did have to go back to her cage. They didn’t want her to die from lack of sun. That French man had been very helpful in making sure that the other sailors didn’t do anything to her. Some of them looked starved for any female interaction, even that of a girl.

It was rather disgusting, and she felt no pity for those tempted by a young girl. She had learned that the man’s name was Hanz. As you could guess, he was German. He had moved to Francia as a way to escape his woes. It didn’t work and he needed money, so he became a knight for the duke.

He had taught her some French fraises and words. All in all, life wasn’t the worst. It was bad as she had to pee in a bucket and didn’t have running water, but it wasn’t all around bad. She did have to eat hardtack. She couldn’t even eat any fruit or veg.

While all the sailors showed some signs of scurvy, she didn’t get it. While cat Beastkin could eat fruits and veg perfectly fine, they didn’t need it. But she did need to eat meat sometimes, they had run out of it, and she was showing some signs of Carnolust.

Carnolust was a similar disease to scurvy, there was a large difference. It involved vitamin B12. Cat beastkin needed a lot more B12 than humans, and if they didn’t get it, they would go crazy and start eating any fresh meat they could get their hands on.

She was starting to see Hanz as a very tasty meal right now. In fact, it could be a problem. Hanz had been only good to her, if a little distant. But then again, she was a slave. That meant she was an object now. Nobody would sympathize with her. Her new master apparently liked beastkin.

That meant he would probably dress her up and treat her as a doll. If she was small and made of plastic, he might even have had her put in a jar. That would be a nightmare. What was even scarier was that she was used to this kind of thing from her past life.

She had been in the “Federal Standing State Guard and Army” in her past life. A standing guard was not human, they were a tool for his chancellorship to use against those he saw fit. And they drilled that into you in the Guard. She was all too familiar with this sort of thing.

She sighed as she looked around the room. There stood a multitude of people. One of them was the man who had been the one to brand her. He seemed undeferential to the people around him. Over the month she had been here she had learned he was still alive, and his name was Jameson.

The images of the brand being pushed to her skin was enough to bring tears to her eyes. Another was Hanz. He also seemed to be bothered by Jameson’s presence, why she didn’t know. It seemed to her that he wasn’t well liked.

She looked to the other men, and they all seemed to be thinking. They then started to converse with each other. She only knew a little French so she could barely pick up what they were talking about, but it seemed to her that they had made their way to the main island.

They hadn’t docked yet; she would probably be able to tell if that was the case. Thinking about it, they were probably just outside the port or something along those lines. If she was being honest, she couldn’t wait to get back on dry land.

The men then dispersed; the only ones still there were Jameson and Hanz. Hanz stood up from his chair and opened the cage. Aisling got out and stood up straight. She had been stuck in the cage for the past 24 hours and she wanted to make sure that her spine still did spine things.

She leaned back and heard a rather loud crack come from her back. It seemed that her body wasn’t supposed to bend like that. She was a cat, but not all cats liked being in cardboard boxes. She had a cat in her past life as a kid, but he never wanted to be boxed in.

Then Jameson came over and pulled her arm. She tried to resist at first, but he commanded her to let him pull her around. She felt the now all too familiar sear of pain go throughout her body and she complied. He yanked her over to one of the stacks of crates and forced her to sit down on the chair by the stack.

She saw that there was a multitude of items and such on top of one of the crates. The items in question seemed to be a bottle of alcohol, fresh clothes that looked still somehow clean, wads of wool, and some barbershop tools. It seemed they were going to make her presentable for the lord.

He then ordered her to sit still and not move. Rushes of pain came through her as she complied. Why did she feel pain when she was ordered to do something, even if she did that thing? She didn’t know. But it was rather annoying.

It took about an hour or so for him to finish making her look good. He had taken off her clothes and put on this new maid outfit. She noticed how it was a tiny bit revealing but she pushed that to the side of her head. He had her drink some of the alcohol so she would gain a healthier complexion. Her hair was cut short so as to not get in the way and to make cleaning easier. It was then that she noticed how mature her own body was starting to look.

She looked maybe fourteen, possibly older. She was starting to think that the age of old man spirit was starting to accelerate her own already fast growth. It was rather scary that she looked like this even. The simple fact of the matter was she was starting to sympathize with those sailors.

When they made their way out of the ship, she noticed that they had not yet docked. They had made their way to the island and were just out of reach of the island’s fortress cannons. Another ship was pulling alongside them. It seemed to be here to drop off cargo.

A gangplank was put over top of the deck and another was put on after that. She got deva vu from this. It was like when she was brought over from the Norse ship to the one, she was currently on.

Some men had started to bring some supplies over the first plank and then some more men, and a woman, walked over the second one. All the sailors looked the same. They had muscles on muscles. Tanned skin and seemed slightly exhausted.

But the woman. She was wearing a maid outfit as well. She seemed older and had a more revealing outfit than Aisling. She also wore a brass collar with some Nordic runes on the sides. Her age seemed to be between thirty and thirty-five.

What really drew in Aisling’s eyes though was her hair and ears. Her hair was a vivid orange and her ears that rested at the top of her head were those of dog ears. They stood up straight and looked to be of a Kerry beagle.

The older woman looked at her and smiled. The smile was one of a mother, like she was welcoming someone home after a long time of being away.

“Hello dear, you shall be the newest servant in a very long time,” she spoke in the most alluring, mature voice Aisling hadn’t heard in years.

…

She was brought off the ship with the head maid and her guards. As she got a closer look at the woman, she seemed to have a multitude of marks she could barely spot across her body. They looked like they had come from a whip or some sort of switch. Some bruising was also spotted.

Though, the older lady didn’t seem bothered by this at all, and instead of hiding these marks, she simply ignored them, at least, that is what Aisling had noticed. This woman might have been a pleasure slave.

If that was correct, then what was to be of her if she later became more than a maid? Was she going to be struck like a masochist? Was she going to become like this woman, so used to the pain and marks that were strewn across her body that she didn’t bother hiding them?

As they landed the ship on the dock and everyone who had to get off, got off, Aisling looked around. It was rather strange; the simple fact that this port city looked so good. The buildings were rather tall, and their structure looked rather roman.

She simply could not stop her confusion. This place was bombarding her with so much new information that she could hardly keep up with it; and it wasn’t like she had never seen a port town before, she lived in one. No, this one was so much more well-built than her own small town.

It was as if the lord had invested only in this island and none of his others. Sure, that could help the city itself and if he never left his main island or ever manor it would seem like a good idea, but in the long run it was truly a silly idea.

Or maybe he was simply rich. Taking slaves and raiding land from Ireland all the way to Morocco. And yes, the author knows where that is. He’s not a philistine. His riches, if that was true, would be massive.

Everything considered, the amount of money spent to keep this place running and grow it into even better things was staggering. She had heard of the riches of the Francian privateers, so maybe he was one?

She looked on with trepidation as the head maid and, seemingly a pleasure slave, led her off the ship. There, on the hard ground, sat on the packed earth, was a carriage. The carriage was nothing special. It seemingly was only there to bring her to wherever they were going.

But what it wasn’t was not any of her concern. It was seemingly a slave carrying carriage if that was a thing. The wheels were wide and had a reinforcements of steel all over. The height of the thing wasn’t any more than the average carriage, but the length was much longer.

The outside of the carriage was also reinforced by steel. The surface of said steel was nothing but the patina of the forge. It seemed to Aisling and her inner voice, that is me, Zog, that she was going to be riding in the back. The head maid took her hand in hers and guided her to the back of the carriage.

The two guards that had followed them off the boat opened the door at the back of the carriage. She looked over to the head maid and she saw her get in the back. She then scanned the whole inside of the carriage. The inside was not as dark and miserable as she thought it would be.

‘It is rather spacious,’ she noted in her head.

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She then looked up to the head maid once again and noted that she had a rather impatient look on her face. Said face was the face of someone who wanted to get some talking done. So, Aisling stepped up into the gilded cage that was the life she was going to live from now on and peered at the inside once more.

“What is your name child?” the older masochistic lady asked.

“Aisling,” replied Aisling rather submissively.

There was really nothing other than that to say. Her life was that of a slave now. She could not escape while she had this collar on. That was something that Hanz had told her. And it was something that she had to come to terms with. She dipped her head and deflated herself. Trying to seem smaller.

“Now, here is what’s going to happen from now on. You are a doll that will cook and clean for the Duke. When he asks, you will come and look pretty for him. When you grow older, like me because he likes older women, you will service him,” she stated.

It was less of an order and more of simply stating the weather. It would happen, she would service him when she was older. She would be a bird in a gilded cage.

“Am I understood?” the pleasure slave asked.

“Crystal clear ma’am,” said Aisling.

She was starting to understand this woman more. She was less of the head maid, and she felt more like the wife of the Duke. She really wanted to ask at what age this woman had been enslaved but she felt like it encroach on private territory. It was probably something that she would learn more of later.

She was probably enslaved since childhood. Maybe she was born into slavery. Something that wasn’t uncommon. But it was then that her own thought had been interrupted.

“What element do you have the most affinity with? We are both Spirit beastkin, but we obviously have different affinities. What is yours?” she asked.

Now the author hasn’t talked about how the most of all magic works. Yes, he has talked about how mana and chi work, but he hasn’t talked about how the different magic are produced.

For now, simply know that there are four elements. They are all linked to elements that don’t have anything to do with these elements. There are also a multitude of elements that don’t fit into this system. Such as Aisling’s element, sound. But there are others that simply don’t work like how the many people of this world think they do.

There weren’t many sound spirits that weren’t just music makers. Sound spirits loved harmony and would do anything to make sure that that harmony was safe and sound, no pun intended. These guys are the reason why she felt the need to sing when she stabbed that ‘Broken one’ all those years ago. The spirits guided her. They simply hated the aura of the thing.

So, she simply made the call to tell the woman what her element was. It might lead to confusion, or her getting punished for being disrespectful and lying. But she was going to tell her either way.

“It is sound, my element is sound,” she said to the head maid who looked at her funny.

“Your element is sound?” she asked, very confused.

“Yes, Head maid, that is true. My element is sound. Most of the time the spirits I bond with just wish to make music. That is all they really do,” she said in a quiet voice.

Aisling nodded in affirmation. Many Spirit beastkin knew of the dumb ways of categorizations but this one did not. She herself had no major spirit of any element. And that was rather shocking in and of itself. One would think at least one spirit would make a pact with her, but she didn’t have any.

The slave turned pleasure servant explained as much to the new doll of a slave that seemingly was more adjusted to the slave life than any other of the new slaves. Aisling had explained the fact that she had sound as her element to the older woman. But it was very hard not to step on the proverbial.

This girl had no idea how magic seemed to work in the natural world. It seemed to Aisling that this older woman had only known the life of a pleasure slave for her whole life.

Pity had seeped into Aisling; this maid had never known freedom or anything of the like. It was rather sad all things considered. But before the pity could bleed into her expression, the pitiable woman actually remembered something.

“Oh, and by the way little doll, I haven’t told you, my name. I would be sorry, but a doll like you doesn’t deserve pity. Oh, what shall you call me? Hm, I wonder; If you could call me Ma’am. That would be fantastic!” she exclaimed.

“Of course, Ma’am. As you wish Ma’am,” she responded in a submissive voice.

…

After about an hour of riding in the back of the carriage, they had arrived at their location. Said location was a rather large and imposing manor. As with all Francian buildings that Aisling had seen, this one seemed to be styled after a roman villa.

Or maybe, at one point, it had been a villa but was rebuilt into this. The roof was a deep, sky blue. The walls were made from marble. The front door was a deep blue, with brass accents.

Two guards flanked the door. The two of them were wearing brigandine amor and had kettle helms atop their heads. They looked at the approaching Aisling and head maid. Seemingly my muscle memory alone, they dropped their halberds in front of the two of them.

The head maid looked accosted and the two guards that had accompanied the two women looked at the manor guards with pity. It seemed to Aisling that these men had been here on duty for too long. It reminded her of her past life and the countless hours she had spent patrolling the perimeter.

Sure, it was boring, but it was rather important. She peered at them, and they seemed to realize who these people were and pulled up their halberds. They then looked at Aisling in wonder and a bit of something else.

That was a very strange reaction to a young girl with angel wings. She wondered what was going through their minds right about now. They looked at each other next and then at the head maid for explanations. She did not give any.

They simply shrugged their shoulders and let the four of them through. As she stepped into the manor itself, she could not stop but gawk at the paintings on the walls. They were portraits of beastkin.

Several of them looked like they were paintings of spirit beastkin. The five on the left were of woman in skimpy outfits that, instead of showing off their curves, showed off their mutations.

Yes, the majority of them were mutated beastkin. But the mutations weren’t all pretty. Some looked down right like biblically accurate angels. One girl with cat ears and antlers, had four pupils in both eyes each. Another young man had actual lion claws, without the fur.

It was honestly the strangest thing she had ever seen. The head maid looked at her gawking and turned to her and chuckled. She closed her eyes and opened them again. Then grabbed the younger child’s arm and pulled her to one of the paintings.

She seemed to have thought of something. She led the smaller girl to a singular painting up the stairs the Aisling had somehow missed. The stairs themselves were rather ornate, with a spiraling design going counterclockwise.

The handrails were blue with brass accents just like the front door. It seemed that that was the theme of the manor. Now that she had noticed. The walls, the floor as well as the ceiling, were awfully well made. The walls looked wooden, and the floor seemed to have an Irish motif for some odd reason.

And then her eyes landed on it, or rather them. They were twins. Two young women. They looked awfully similar to each other but with some differences. Like the left sided one had cat ear and the right sided one had the ears of a terrier. In fact, the right sided girl just looked like a younger version of the head maid.

While the left girl had cat ears, there was also something strange about her. That thing being her having bone blades coming from her forearms. She also had three cat tails instead of just one. The two younger women in the picture were both striking somewhat suggestive poses. While the younger version of the head maid in the painting had on an even more revealing outfit than right now, the other girl had on some boob plate armor.

Aisling, despite not being that attracted to females in this life, started to stare intently at the picture of the two women. She then realized her mistake and shook her head to clear the thoughts from her mind. In all honesty, the head maid could understand the reaction from the doll in front of her.

She had once two drooled over the pictures of many of the people in these paintings. But now they had to go and meet the lord, her lover and loved. Aisling felt the need to apologize. But they had no more time to waste. The head maid turned unofficial wife of the duke had simply lost herself in wanting to show off.

“I simply wanted to show you something that you yourself will participate in. in the duke has only owned two beastkin. My sister and soon, you, are and will be my lord’s pride and joy,” she explained, “oh, and in case if you are wondering, all the other spirit beastkin all used to belong to my lord’s family in the past.”

Aisling straightened herself out in mind and body. She then bowed apologetically. She wished to say sorry for overstepping her bounds and gawking at and over the many pictures.

“I am sorry ma’am. I am sorry for gawking, it will not happen ever again,” she pleaded like she was nothing but a doll.

In truth, she would never stare and drool over these paintings again if she could help it. years of service in her past life would lend itself to that. The head maid seemed impressed by this and nodded her head while looking down at the younger girl. Aisling’s effort to put herself in the new situation she was in was working, maybe too well.

As they walked down the upstairs hall, Aisling got a strange feeling. Said feeling was like she was being watched. She looked around the hall and at the paintings. Some of them seemed to have cliché peep holes in them.

One of the paintings, a picture of a dog beastkin to be precise, had eyes watching. As soon as she locked eyes with them, they went away. It was rather strange to see someone do something so cliché as to peep on two girls walking down the hall to the duke’s office.

As soon as they got to the door they had been walking to, Aisling started to feel nervous. It was like, up until this point, she hadn’t been walking to meet her new master. It was like she was walking to go to a new job interview. That was also even stranger to think about.

She hadn’t been to a job interview for years. And the last job she had in her past life was that of an unofficial audiologist. That was someone who cleans ears if you didn’t know that. It was a rather fun job. While she didn’t always have the best time with it, she did meet some friends at that job.

Men often didn’t come and so many of the people who came were woman. Like the author has said, it was unofficial. She didn’t have a degree or anything of that sort. It was more of a booth that her boss had set up in the back of his barber shop.

Though, the rest of that story will be saved for another time. Right now, she had to meet her new master and owner. It would be rather strange to start living, and thinking like she had in her past life’s time in the military.

The doors that led to this new, or rather old lifestyle were even more ornate than the other doors all over the hall. It kind of remind her of the old America’s oval office. Before it became the oppressive, tyrannical chancellorship it was now.

The head maid opened the doors. What lay beyond was going to be her new life. She was now property, and she expected to be treated as such.

What greeted the two of them was confusing to Aisling and typical for the other. And as for the guards, they simply waited outside. This had been a long day for the two of them and they simply wished to stop tailgating this masochistic woman any longer.

The man in the center of the room was currently painting a picture of a naked beastkin woman. Said woman was a hawk girl, a very rare variant of a bird beastkin. She had a rather large pair of assets and the pose she was in didn’t help to hide her strange scar across the right side of her stomach. Her brown and grey feathers gave her an average beauty look.

The man painting such a thing noticed the open door and beckoned the two women in. He had average stature and grey hair. His robust yet plump frame seemed to have been made from hours of work and eating. He also seemed to be balding. His receding hairline was proof of that.

“Harless dear, you can relax,” the man spoke to hawk girl.

The hawk girl relaxed and readjusted herself on the chair she was sitting on. Said chair looked to be padded do that was nice for her. The man then looked over to the two of them again. He then stood up and adjusted his posture.

“Paddy dear, who is this new and stunning doll you have brought me?” asked the man, now most certainly the duke.

“This is Aisling, she is from Westport Ireland and is 10 years old. She seems to have grown a pair of wings as a result of a spirit magic mutation. They are very soft as you can tell just by looking at them,” the head maid explained.

The duke then looked at Aisling with glittering eyes. He seemed giddy at the fact that he had yet another mutated spirit beastkin. All in all, his smile looked kind of like a child who had just gotten a shiny, first edition Charizard. He seemed to want to say or do something but was hiding it.

“Yes, my lord, I am yours to do with as you please. If you need me to do anything you wish, simply order me,” she said.

The smile on his face turned into a strange mix of surprise and awe. Then it filled with giddiness once more. He started to bounce up and down in place. He then looked over to Harless and then back to Aisling and then to the head maid. Finally, after holding it all in, he burst into cheers.

“PADDY, I finally have a green haired cat girl! There are so many blue-haired or pink-haired girls and even boys! But not any green-haired! Harless, get off that chair, I have a portrait to paint,” he shouted out.

As soon as he said that the hawk girl got off the chair and stood by the wall. And while she was sat down and put into a very wholesome and actually rather whimsy position, all that was going through her head was…

‘he’s a weeb and autistic, holy fucking shit,’

End of arc one…