“You would think they would give some indication of what was what,” Lee said to the mustached man as they stacked up all the packages that had arrived, which were said to be full of Xaxac’s clothes, “Ain’t no way to know which is part of what outfit.”

“They got them squiggles on um,” Xaxac said from the bedroom, where he was sitting on the bed so Alex could comb out his hair.

“That ain’t particularly helpful,” Lee said, “coulda put a picture, like, ‘thisin’s a shirt, thisin’s pants’. Somethin.”

“You’re gonna have to open all of um,” The mustached man said, “that’s about all there is to it.”

There came a knock at the door, so Lee went to open it. Xaxac snarled when he heard the voice of Mrs OfAgalon, and wondered what the hell she was doing up here. He was almost positive Agalon had told her to stay away from him, to stay out of this room.

“The Loraxinas have arrived,” she announced, “I’ve put them in the guest suite. I just thought you would like to know.”

“Oh,” Lee said, as if he had been expecting this, “Great. I’m gonna run down and talk to Mickey, send Jimmy Ray out to tell the Master. Thanks.”

“Yes,” Mrs OfAgalon said, “That’s probably the best. I’ll tell the cook to amend her lunch plans.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Lee agreed.

“I don’t like Mrs OfAgalon,” Xaxac said, “And she don’t seem to care much for me so we kinda…”

“I get that,” Alex said, “I ain’t never had much for her. I don’t reckon she likes us, any of us. She’s jealous. Some folks is just like that. And I can’t stand how she talks. She wants to sound traveled but I bet she ain’t. I bet she ain’t never stepped foot outside the plantation.”

“Oh yes she has,” Xaxac said, and laughed so hard he tilted himself forward. “That’s why she don’t talk to me no more.”

“What’s that mean?” Alex asked, but he did not receive an answer because Lee came into the room.

“Xaxac please don’t make a giant mess,” Lee implored, “But do get dressed. The master may want to entertain in his sittin room once he gets back. So do me a favor and move all them boxes in here.”

“Ok!” Xac said chipperly. He was always eager to have something to do. “Did them new people bring anybody with um? I mean, they got a pleasure slave?”

“Yeah, but it’s Helen,” Alex said, “We can’t talk to her.”

“You know Helen?” Xac asked.

“Not super good because, again, we ain’t allowed to talk to her.” Alex said, “Hold still, I’m tryin to get your hair slicked down. I think you might have enough to pull back. I know I can do pigtails.”

“I ain’t a little girl, so no,” Xac said.

“Come on, it’ll be cute,” Alex teased.

“Alex…” Xac sighed.

“I’m doin it.”

“Xaxac,” Lee said again and Xac focused all his attention on him, “Get presentable. Please? I don’t know when he’s comin back. We have guests. Quit messin around.”

“I ain’t!” Xac implored, “Alex is!”

“God, Lee, you can suck all the fun out of a room, you know that?” Alex huffed.

“Just get it done, Xac,” Lee said, turned and walked from the room.

“I don’t know how Bobby can stand to be around that sumbitch,” Alex said.

“I wish y’all wouldn’t fight,” Xac sighed, “You got it combed out? I gotta get my clothes on and my makeup did. He’s right, if Aggie comes back for lunch I can’t look like this.” He paused, tilted his head and asked, “Who’s Bobby?”

“Xac, honey, you know Bobby, you’ve met him every time you’ve met me,” Alex said as if he couldn’t believe the stupidity of the question.

“Wait, is that the feller with the mustache?” Xaxac asked.

“Yes, my lord,” Alex giggled.

“Oh, I… I didn’t never learn his name, then it’d been so long with me not knowin it I didn’t wanna ask, on account of how weird that’d be.” Xaxac explained.

“Good god,” Alex said, “You gotta pay more attention to the world around you, boy, that’s pathetic.”

“Help me get these boxes,” Xaxac said as he scooted off the bed.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“I was gonna pull your hair up,” Alex said.

“You still can, just help me get the boxes,” Xaxac said from the doorway.

He picked a stack of them up from behind the couch where Lee and Bobby had placed them and carried them back to the bedroom, humming as he went.

“Thesis above, these are heavy,” Alex said, “What the hell’d you get? Boots, I bet. Bet it’s boots.”

“You ain’t that weak,” Xac said, “Are you… are you honestly tryin to get outta doin somethin?”

“What?” Alex asked as if the thought had never occurred to him, “No! I love havin shit to do, I just got the heaviest stack. And maybe don’t pick up a bunch at one time like that? You’re gonna drop um.”

“Ok… No, I ain’t,” Xac huffed as he passed him, “And if I did would it matter? What, am I gonna break um?”

He sat the packages where the wardrobes would be, on either side of the water closet, and watched as Alex, apparently to make some sort of point, dropped the stack he was carrying heavily to the ground.

“Ok,” Xac rolled his eyes, then turned to the pile with a grin, “Let’s see what I got…”

He picked up the first box and inspected it. They were all nearly uniform in size, but Alex was right in his assertion that some were heavier than others. This one seemed to be particularly light.

He carefully untied the twine, then slowly undid the paper and set it to the side, before pulling the lid off the box.

“Oh, now see, that’s what I thought,” Alex said, “Every box is a different outfit.”

“I don’t think this is a whole outfit,” Xaxac said as he stood and put the box on the bed. Inside was much less than he anticipated; there was only one layer of shimmering fabric, the rest was jewelry; most of the box was filled with various gold chains.

He picked up what he thought had to be a garment and let the chains slide off of it. He wasn’t particularly sure what it was.

“That’s so cute!” Alex said.

“You seen somethin like this before?” Xac asked.

“Oh yeah, in magazines,” Alex said, “That’s what pleasure slaves wear on the fire continent! You’re gonna look so cute!”

Xaxac thought it was odd that Agalon would commission anything in the style of the fire continent, given the horrible experiences he seemed to have had there, but that wasn’t really any of his business. Instead, he shrugged and pulled the pants up.

They tied rather than buttoning, and his first thought was that they would be much easier to get on and off, but his second thought was that it was the most comfortable thing he had ever worn. The fabric was even lighter than his uniform, and flowed almost like a skirt. It poofed out, except for where it tied at the ankles and waist, and he spun to feel it move.

“I love it,” Alex giggled, and pulled the box toward himself, at the edge of the bed, to get to the contents, “Oooh, once we get all this on, it’ll jingle when you move.”

He pulled out a belt adorned with dangling golden chains attaching gold disks together.

“That’s gonna tangle all to hell,” Xac sighed, “hold it out like that so I can pick it apart.”

“Yeah it ain’t… ain’t exactly a good system,” Alex agreed as Xac tried to unwind the chains that had locked together during transport, “But I mean, it’s pretty.”

“Pretty and aggravating,” Xac huffed, “just like me.”

It turned out that most of the jewelry portion of the outfit, which was most of the outfit, had tangled and knotted itself, so it took them some time to work through it, and Xaxac sincerely hoped that the rest of the clothes wouldn’t be so time consuming. But as he stood, staring into the mirror letting Alex fasten the last necklace, he had to admit that it was worth it.

He knew nothing of the fire continent, their people, or their fashion, apart from the fact that there had apparently been a war at some point, but Xac could not imagine anywhere allowing anyone who was not a pleasure slave to dress in the outfit. It was so unlike the clothes worn by Agalon, which he had original mistaken for winter wear, that the contrast worried Xac a little. There was so little to it that even fully dressed most of his flesh was exposed.

He remembered Alley telling him that Mrs OfAgalon had standards. Men who worked in the house who were going to be seen wore coats, even in summertime. Women could not show their elbows.

His outfit didn’t have a shirt, just long dangling gold chains, arm bands, and bracelets.

The outfit was a status symbol.

But it was beautiful, and it tinkled and jingled when he moved, and he was a pleasure slave, so he was allowed to like it.

“Cute, right?” He asked Alex.

“I love it,” Alex said, “I want one. I might get one, if Ky sees you in it. I’d love to go to the fire continent, but he says it’s right boring. They’re not as big on tourism, says we’d be bored to tears. There’s a couple nobles, but not one for every island, not a lot of celebratin unless there’s a festival. I’d just like to go to go though, you know?”

“Did Ky fight on the fire continent?” Xac asked.

“No, honey, that was way too long ago,” Alex giggled, “He ain’t that old. I mean he’s old, but he’s an elf. That’s even… for an elf that’s ancient.”

“Aggie found on the fire contient,” Xaxac said defensively.

“Yeah, darlin, your master’s got one foot in the grave,” Alex said.

“You don’t think,” Xaxac said as the thought occurred to him, something he had never really let himself fully ingest, fully vocalize, “He’s gonna die, do you?”

“Yeah,” Alex shrugged, “eventually. Death comes for everybody.”

“I mean…” Xac turned to face Alex, where he sat on the bed, “Before me? Do you think he could die before me?”

“I don’t know how long them fuckers live,” Alex shrugged.

“But what happens? To people, I mean? If their master dies?” Xaxac asked.

“Oh, I know that’n,” Alex said, as if it was ridiculous Xaxac did not, “When your master dies you go to their next a kin, with the rest of their stuff.”

“Oh,” Xaxac said, thinking of Lorsan, of how his moods tended to shift with little to no provocation, wondering what life would be like serving under him. He was almost positive that Lorry didn’t want a pleasure slave, at all, and absolutely would not want him in particular. Would he go back to the fields?

He turned to look back into the mirror.

Could he go back to the fields?

He needed to do his makeup.