Taen watched while the regiment abandoned the gate and normal traffic out of the city resumed. A slow smile spread over his face as the last soldiers of the Pasenian cavalry started the long walk back to their segment of the city. With the vanishing of the regiment and the flow of people out as well as in, came the moment he sought.
‘By now the dead drunk with the coin from the foreigner will have been found, the knife in his guts in the clothing ‘I’ was wearing, someone will report something that unusual, the foreigner will assume he was the one they spoke to, and I’ll be forgotten just like always. Almost without a hitch.’ He melodramatically wiped nonexistent sweat from his brow when he had the walls well at his back. Afoot and light hearted he took to the open road under the endless sky.
He fell in with a pleasant group of traveling companions, a few young couples who spoke with enthusiasm about their prospects of going to a village under the sway of a new member of the nobility.
Typical of most Pasenian peasants attempting something new, they had a swagger of confidence that was a veritable strut, especially when walking east as they spoke of dreams he knew were impossible. Their bright clothes and happy demeanor seemed, as it always did to Taen, to have an almost frantic air to it. ‘You gamble like a Pasenian.’ The phrase came to mind immediately when they talked of their intent to ‘start a farm, then their own merchant company and strike it rich selling grain or rice’.
‘Laughable. Utterly laughable.’ He thought, and laughed along with their jokes, so that it wouldn’t be obvious that he was laughing at them.
He hefted the coin in his pocket from the merchant cover that got him into the city, his peers had done their work, forgotten him and so it went. ‘Just buy a horse at the crossroads and move along back to Prince Isaura. I love this job.’ His good mood only improved, the smaller Pas’en got at his back.
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Sado watched with fascination from his place at the back of the formation of Komestran soldiers.
Sergeant Vargas rendered a sharp salute to the Duchessa, and then fell into the back beside the Prince himself.
Nua was quick with her words. The orc was staked up vertically, left in nothing but a loincloth, his piggish face a mask of criminal wrath. “Get me down from here! I’ll kill you all! All of you!” He shook in his bonds, flailing in futility against the ropes. It was an ingenious little setup, Sado had to admit. A simple pair of poles staked out in the grounds that were twice his height, with ropes at the ankles that then ran to the top of the poles, holding him upside down. Down at the base, his wrists were secured to ropes that were secured to other stakes a few feet away, keeping him at a low angle that left him entirely helpless.
Nua looked over her shoulder. “Solution. Silence him.” A scream began and was cut off a moment later, leaving a thrashing orc and only a grim gurgle and a flailing that, other than the creaking noise of the rope, was the only sound to break the tension between them until the mistress of house Aiwenor spoke again.
“Behind me is the criminal who took one of my slaves. The rest who were caught were given to the Prince’s justice. But this one…” She jabbed her thumb over her shoulder, “This one beat her. Badly. He tried to break the loyalty of my servant by the use of pain. And he is here, because there is a profound penalty, for anyone who harms what is mine, who harms one of yours. It’s a hard lesson to learn, and he won’t survive his education.”
She looked over her shoulder again, “Solution, do it.”
The beautiful buxom blonde gave a joyful smile that barely seemed human, and her golden curls bounced as she began to tear into her victim. Gurgles became the ghosts of screams. Gurgled threats became gurgled begging, blood dripped down the limbs as chunks of flesh were cut away and blood trickled down from the limbs, to the rope to the grass.
Solution pouted when he finally lost consciousness due to the pain, passing out when his brain was overloaded.
Nua approached the trembling remnants of the once powerful orc, removed her gloved left hand, and slammed her hand down over the throat. She squeezed, hard. ‘Feast, Yersin!’ She ordered, and the black gem glowed happily as it sucked the life from the thrashing orc, until the neck snapped with an audible crack over the empty ground between her and her soldiers, leaving a corpse behind. When she was done, she leaned over to her teacher and rested her left hand on her shoulder to whisper, “All yours, Solution… except the skeleton, save that for me.”
“That’s my student.” Solution grinned with inhuman breadth and cut the ropes, dropping the deceased meat with a thud, before dragging it away.
The sound of dragging and breaking grass was unpleasant enough that Sado looked away for a distraction, out over the vast manor.
The grass of the estate was the size of a parade field, kept neatly trimmed out of the Prince’s pocket as a matter of city pride, though save for a large fountain set squarely before the entrance, it was otherwise open ground and undecorated. The walls were stone for six feet up, with stairs that ran out a dozen feet more with long curved rails, with the stairs narrowing toward the doors allowing a large crowd to filter in. The walls and doors from there up, were massive dark cherry wood, with a multitude of glass windows. The estate curved into a horseshoe design, with ancillary buildings distant from the center of power. The home rose four stories high, making it one of the largest buildings in Pas’en.
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‘I give it a few hours after her official reception into the ranks of the nobility, before the marriage proposals start rolling in like flies to honey.’ He thought, and with an eye turned to the bloody drag marks in the grass leading away from her ‘demonstration’, he followed that thought with another. ‘And I don’t know if I envy, or pity the ones who propose.’
When she was in front of her soldiers again, Nua folded her arms behind her back and addressed them in a loud, proud voice. “Your days in cages are done. In a short time, your sergeant will lead you to your new homes, that will be your barracks. For the present, every man and woman will have their own room… however this may change as I add brothers and sisters to your ranks. Still though, I think it is better than the cages.” She let that sink in with them for a bit, bigger smiles were already starting to form on the faces of those eager to have their own space again.
“Now, Freyjin, step forward!” Nua called out, exposing her naked throat as she raised her chin. Freyjin, hearing her name, felt the girls that had come to depend upon her, cling a little tighter, staring fearfully through the gaps in the formation at the one whose nature they had not decided upon yet.
She patted their heads and gently disengaged herself from them before going to the front of the formation at a light jog. She immediately began to sink to her knees, only to have the hand of her mistress stop her at her chest. “No… not like that, not now.” Nua said with a gentle, encouraging look. Freyjin’s face froze, she almost mechanically rose, and when Nua whispered, ‘face the unit’ she did so without question.
“As you know, we already set the award for Sergeant Vargas, he will have his wife returned to him. My servants will be attending the market, identifying where she was sold, and acquiring her at my behest. By right bestowed upon me for the living delivery of the smuggler, ‘Bracer’, I may acquire any slave in Pas’en. Nothing bars her return but the time it takes to retrieve her! However she will not be coming alone!”
Nua thrust her finger up toward the sky, then brought her dread left hand down on Freyjin’s shoulder. “During the theft of my servant, Priceless, Freyjin displayed cunning, creativity, expertise, and courage in the recovery above her station. Therefore, her daughter Veema, ripped from her after the Siege of Komestra, will be returned to her! A reward for good service, not only to myself, but to you! Save one! Save all!”
Freyjin’s knees weakened, shook, and she collapsed to her knees, covering her face to hide her joyful sobs. “Sergeant Vargas, see your soldiers to their quarters. And select some for additional roles, food, squad leadership, and logistics. Freyjin, stay with me.”
Sergeant Vargas approached, returned the salute, took charge of the unit, and began the steady march.
Freyjin remained at her lady’s feet, while Nua gestured for the two leather collared child wards of her servant to come forward. They did, on tentative little feet, with small steps, clinging to one another’s hands, their mix of admiration and fear writ large over their faces when they recalled the way she put down their monster, set against all the rest.
They embraced the weeping Freyjin with curious, uncertain eyes, not knowing what her feelings were, she held them against herself as tightly as she could as if she feared that her mistress would threaten to take them away again.
“Come with me, the three of you.” Nua uttered with a calm, patient expression, and walked with easy comfort toward the door.
Freyjin, at the first step of her mistress’s boot to the stone, rushed from the girls that walked beside her, grasped the handle, and pulled it open with both hands. She bowed deeply, allowing her the otherworldly woman to pass her by before she rose and followed with the two little ones.
“Mistress… I… I’m scared…” Freyjin spoke up suddenly as she looked around the cavernous entryway. The black and white floor of marble caught the light and shone all the more brightly as a result, smooth long banisters curved along lightly colored steps of exotic wood. Long halls wide enough for three to pass abreast stretched out seemingly to infinity to their uncomprehending eyes.
“Why?” Nua asked without turning to look behind her.
Freyjin hugged the two close to her, her arms grasping at their backs, “I, I’m grateful that you’re giving me back my Veema, but I’m, well in here, I’m afraid you’re going to take these from me… like you’re going to show me how much better their lives will be with you than with me! I know that… I’m a… I know what I am, mistress! I can’t give them anything, I don’t have anything left, but please… I’ll raise them like they’re my own! I’ll take care of them! I’ll grind myself to dust for you… I just…”
“Freyjin, you misunderstand.” Nua said gently, looking back over her shoulder as she led them up a set of stairs.
“Mistress, I know you said they could be servants here and… well I know you won’t be cruel to them… you won’t do what… what that one did. But after, well aren’t you going to keep me as a soldier, and let me see them or, well they can’t live in the barracks with the adults. I just thought…” Freyjin’s words were cut off.
“As I said, you misunderstand.” Nua said as they went up to an upper floor. “You proved beyond question during the investigation, that you are an asset to me. You’re not just a blade, you’re more useful as a brain. Kaiji is to be given the title of Majordomo. You will be my Steward. Your iron collar is to be removed, and you will be given bronze instead. You will live here, in this house, given sufficient space for yourself, and…” She turned to face her servant’s red flushed face when she stood before a door, “your three children.”
Nua’s face fell to the confused looks of the white haired girls, and crouched down in front of them, she held out her hands, and nodded reassuringly. Each placed a tentative hand into her palms, which Nua slowly closed her fingers over. “Listen to me, Lenah, Straen… I am truly sorry that this life fell on you as it did. But nobody but god can change the world overnight. There will be… times… times when you look at me with hatred. With fear. But please understand, that this is for your safety, and the safety of this house and everyone in it. You may not understand it yet, but when you are adults? Well then, then I will explain everything. I promise. And if then… if you’re still sore about the days between now and then, well, we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. For now, it’s enough that I want you to understand that you’re safe, nobody will hurt you, not ever again. And if anyone tries…? I will do to them what I did to that dead orc.”
Nua rose to her feet, patted their innocent heads, and opened the door. She gestured within with one hand, “It isn’t furnished yet, but this space will belong to you three. Your children can serve as maids in training… in addition to the rest of their education.”
Freyjin stared within when the door opened, “I didn’t have a house this big…”
“You’ll need to divide it up after you’ve furnished it if you want privacy, but you’ll do that on ‘your’ time.” Nua said pointedly, “Let the little ones go explore and learn the lay of the manor. You’re joining me in my office, and we’ll get that iron off and replace it with something better. You’ve got a lot of work today, and I will not waste time.”
Freyjin hastily gave some rules to the two, and as they scampered off to explore, she fell into step behind the enigma whose secret she both knew to be true, and yet could not believe.
She watched the clipped and graceful motions with a growing transcendent reverence that seemed to be redoubled every time the Duchessa chose to act.
Her previous words remained a mystery she could not riddle out, and yet as she followed along, it occurred to her, ‘I will understand too, in time.’ And that let her rest a bit at ease, until the lady of the manor came to a broad double door that Freyjin rushed to open for her.
Nua walked into the lightly furnished office, past Kaiji and Priceless, who wore very, very satisfied expressions on their faces before she did an about face, bringing the following Freyjin to a sudden surprised halt.
“Priceless, fetch the spare Bronze, and Freyjin?” Nua extended her hand, while a startled and nervous Freyjin shifted her feet and looked at her twitching ears in the shining polished floor that the sun made even brighter through the window.
“Mistress?” Freyjin asked, a mix of wild hope and boundless fear rampaged through her in the presence of the golden haired terror.
“Present your neck.” Nua ordered as the bronze collar was laid into her palm.