Skorazen stood in the temple of his ‘mistress’. He was alone, and it was impossible not to feel the cold tendrils of death that crept up from his feet, ran up his spine, and grasped his heart like the white hand of death. Individually, it all seemed benign. Stone benches, colored windows, shadows between the light.

An empty alcove stood cloaked in darkness. The former Prince of Komestra himself had been said to stand at the fore and speak of divine will. ‘It feels like the shadow watches me…’ His hand swept through the Alcove over and over as if trying to swat a fly that wasn’t there. Yet it was eerie, tendrils of dark cast about where dancing lights moved shadows like tentacles. Like the shadow of a gallows rope cast by the setting sun.

Unperturbed and sure he was alone, Skorazen went to the lectern where a book sat open and began to read. “The virtuous general… book of the child… book of war…” He moved his lips to speak the words, but they were mere whispers with no air to form the sounds. Nothing louder than the sounds made by his upper and lower lips touching one another.

He flipped through it quickly, and reached up to scratch the short brown hair of his head. ‘Yes, yes this will do.’ Skorazen put the book into his coat and left. ‘With them at that little ceremony, I couldn’t pick a better time.’

He made his exit the long way around the manor, the powerful voice of the Duchessa echoed over the grounds, as long as he stuck to the building walls, he was as good as gone.

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Nua stood on the platform, while at her right hand, Diana knelt in submission to her mistress. On the yard stood a grand assembly, all of her slave soldiers, all of her household slaves from the smallest child to the oldest adult, bore witness to the event, though few knew what the event was, until their Lady spoke.

“In my homeland it is often joked that the reward of good work is more work. But this alone does not suffice. As mistress of the House of Aiwenor, it falls to me to dispense justice… when one of you is wronged, I must help you. When one of you is hurt, I must heal you. When one of you is ignorant, I must teach you. When one of you succeeds…” her voice became a whisper carried by the priestly power that made her eyes turn golden as the glittering sun.

“...I must praise and reward you. Punishment alone is not justice, reward is too. And this slave, Diana of Komestra, has rendered her life to the service of her people, her city, and her mistress. She endured great hardship, and performed great deeds for me, and for you, that nearly ended her life.” Nua let those words sink home.

“Therefore, as she has given her life to me and to all of you who are my people, I give life to her. She is now, from this day forward, Free! She is free to marry, to divorce, to own property under the law of all cities, to travel where she wishes under the law of all cities, to testify before the courts of all cities. She stands liberated in the eyes of the divine, and is no longer subject to my will… only her own!” [Assassin strike] Nua activated her martial skill grabbed the lock to secure it, then her left hand came out and shattered the lock. It fell, striking the platform with such force and noise that it pierced the wood and embedded itself into the ground.

Free of all security, with her head bowed forward, the clasp point began to slide open, and the collar began to fall away. Nua snatched it up and held it high overhead for all to see, the bronze glittering in the light was impossible to miss.

Nua placed her left hand on Diana’s shoulder while she held the collar still, “Your name is restored and none will take it back! You are Diana, first born daughter of House Najiyah! A blessing of the divine to proud Komestra… and to the House of Aiwenor. Rise up, I am proud of you.”

She cast the bronze into the grass and Diana stood up on her feet with eyes that shimmered like green grass coated in the morning dew. “I never knew I dreamed, until a dream was offered to me. I never knew hope for something else, till it was in my hands… thank you mis- no… thank you… Duchessa, thank you Nua…” Diana flung her arms around her former mistress and buried her face in the shoulder of her former owner for a long moment, while Nua patted her back until Diana managed to wipe her eyes and turn again to face the thousands of collared slaves.

Soldiers pounded shields and those with nothing to pound, clapped their hands, cheered, and howled as the impossible was proven to be possible after all.

It lasted for quite some time before Nua called for quiet, “Now go, enjoy some more time engaged in well earned rest, and be ready when I call you again, to take you home!”

Roars of approval shattered the peace until their dismissal, slowest of all to depart however, were the newly recruited Starlings who watched from their places with envy and ambition glittering in their eyes.

“I haven’t heard the name of my family house spoken in… a very long time.” Diana said at last and put her hand into Nua’s own. “Thank you, you may never trust any loyalty that doesn’t come pledged through a collared throat,” Diana drew Nua’s right hand to her, and covered her beating heart with the palm that set her less on edge than it used to with it’s relative coolness, “but in my heart, I follow you. I pledge myself to your House and your cause, even if you expel me from your sight, even if you change your mind and do not take my name beneath your own as a daughter branch of House Aiwenor… I am your woman. I will spend my life proving it. Your enemies will suffer, what soldiers I raise will be yours. Yanlim will give me his heart, and I will give you his city. You will rise, or I will die trying to make it so.” She brought the hand up and folded it in both of hers, and kissed Nua’s knuckles.

“That is a promise. And Komestrans take their promises seriously.” Diana replied and humbly lowered her eyes.

She felt her heart skip a beat at the ache she heard in her former owner’s voice, “You have no idea… none at all… how much I want to believe all that. From predator to predator, woman to woman, noble to noble, I long for it to be.”

“One day, you won’t believe it, you’ll know it.” Diana replied with a whisper that was followed by a tender kiss on Nua’s cheek. Then after briefly wiping her eyes, they made their way down the steps, and Diana went and picked up the collar that had defined most of her life from one house to another.

She held it out to her former owner after a long look at it, “Tir should have this. She is good enough at reading reports, she needs some work on filling out summaries, but within a limited scope of duties, she shouldn’t have a difficult time. She is of a noble house after all, or was. Her existing education should cover most of the gaps, and whatever else there is, she’ll pick up quickly.”

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Nua accepted the offered bronze without a second thought, “I agree, she’s wasted as a silver collar, and she is very driven. Now… I would suggest you go on and do this or that…” She gave the raven haired Diana a little smile, “but you can go do what you want now, at least until I’ve formally adopted you into the Royal House of Aiwenor, as the daughter of Komestra’s new Prince.”

“I like the sound of that. And thank you… really, truly. Again.” Diana replied, and only then did she turn to walk away.

Nua watched the former slave depart and the corners of her mouth turned up. She clenched her left hand around the collar and mused, ‘Oh Diana… not all collars are physical, there are some bonds so strong that you can never be free of them, and those have no locks to break.’ It wasn’t until she’d crushed the metal in her hand into a mangled mess that she realized what she’d done. “Damn it…” She muttered as she looked down at the deep impressions that abused the bronze.

Then she shrugged and headed into the estate, handing it off to the first maid she saw, Nua gave the brusque order, “Take this to my blacksmith, tell him to fix it to go on another neck by tomorrow.”

“Yes, mistress.” The young girl said, staring down in awe at the mangled metal before looking up at her mistress with a mixture of fear and awe. The maid’s slender fingers traced over the obvious finger indentations there, and went up to unconsciously touch the iron around her own throat. She swallowed hard, and then scurried away as fast as her legs could carry her.

“That makes everything so convenient.” Nua pondered aloud and went to visit the Pain Children.

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“Good! Like that!” Solution declared as Veema mounted Shi from behind and put a knee into her neck before bringing the wooden knife down to touch her eye. “But,” the monster asked, raising a pale finger, “can you do it when she’s fighting back?”

“No.” They said together, only for Veema to wipe her face and add, “Yet.”

“Good. Being able to do these things slowly with a cooperating partner is easy, any trash idiot could do it.” Solution pointed out, “But doing it with someone who is really trying to kill you… and if you screw up, they will be trying to kill you, then, that is something else entirely.” Solution emphasized.

No sooner had they shouted, “Yes, Lady Solution!” than Sado conducted one of his routine ‘surprise attacks’ charging from the hall with a long wooden spear.

“As inferior beings go, this one is exceptional!” Solution shouted and drew him in, pulling the spear as she avoided the thrust, he let go of it and came in for close combat, martial art after martial art came on. “You never want to fight someone who is your equal or better if you can avoid it!” She said, laughing as she avoided or deflected his blows.

“But if you have to, you want to make sure it’s nothing worse than ‘equal’ and you never… ever fight fair!” Solution said and produced a metal dagger. To her surprise, Sado took out one himself and deflected her blow.

It gave them both a moment of pause, “Someone’s been paying attention.” Solution said with a predatory grin, “These were their lessons, not yours.”

“I learned anyway.” Sado gave a predatory grin back at the monster, “And you’re right, you were always right, fighting fair might be fine in a duel, but all the rest of the time… screw it!” he snarled out and attempted to bind her weapon and cast it aside, it came out of her grip and ended up in her other hand. From there her students could only watch as assassin fought warrior. Sado borrowed the unusual maneuver used by Vargas and attempted to get behind Solution by going over her head, only to find that she had moved backward, and he was just standing in front of her again.

He hammered away with the finest blows he could at close range, but it was clear she had elevated her methods, and within moments, he found himself disarmed, and a palm to his head knocked him onto his back.

“Underestimating your opponent is lethal. In this case, if he were really smart, he wouldn’t fight me at all. Not that he has much of a choice right now.” Solution said, putting a foot on his gold collared throat. She was paying attention to her students again while he gurgled and fought to breath.

‘I’m sure she won’t kill me… no, I’m ‘pretty sure’ she won’t kill me.’ Sado thought as his eyes bulged, ‘But that doesn’t make this more pleasant.’

“Still bullying the Prince of Dreams, are you Solution? You really are a monster.” Sado shifted his eye to look in the direction of the voice, and saw his armored mistress enter.

“He’s the only human around here strong enough for me to play with, and that makes him an excellent practice dummy to teach the Pain Children.” Solution said with a wicked smile and a teasing wave of her wiggling fingers.

“Be that as it may, you don’t want the healer to use up ‘all’ of his mana.” Nua said and Solution reluctantly removed her foot from his throat.

Sado rolled onto his side, coughing and hacking, pushing himself up with one hand while clutching at his throat with the other.

“So the ceremony went well, I could hear the cheers.” Solution put her hands on her hips, “I’d say you’ve bound that one to you for life.”

Nua approached a few feet from her Teacher, “We’ll know for sure, Teacher, when I give you her son or daughter to add to the ranks of the Pain Children in a few years. Diana is beautiful, intelligent, and Yanlim is strong as far as humans go. They’ll be good servants to the empire, good servants to the god of death when the time comes. Good servants to me when it comes time to go west. I expect great things out of their children.”

Sado took that all in quietly until Nua turned her eyes toward him. “I’ll expect the same thing out of your children, Sado.”

“My Lady, I…” He began, but Nua would have none of it.

“No.” She said with iron resolve, “For one… I do wish for your happiness, and you’re not the sort of man who can spend his life alone.” She favored him with a smile that contrasted against her stern voice. “But more than that, my empire will be in need of strong people to protect it, and to protect those in it who are too weak to protect themselves. Your sons and daughters will fit that bill. These are your orders. If Yanlim betrays me, take his head and marry Diana in his place, you have the respect of his soldiers, win their loyalty and take the throne ‘if’ you have to. If that never happens, then my order is for you to marry a strong, intelligent woman, have good children, and raise them to act like a wiser version than yourself… but with all your strength.”

Sado’s face was flushed, and he was struck dumb until Nua approached and held a hand out to him, he took it, and she helped her up, “Oh, and make sure not to call out my name when you’re alone together. She might turn out to be too much for you, and I’d have to lose a loyal slave.” Nua winked, but the well of emotion at her orders shook him to the core.

“I, yes mistress, I’ll do as you say.” Sado replied, “But… what if Diana betrays you?”

“Then do nothing, because I will take care of her myself. That will be a mother’s duty.” Nua answered with narrowed eyes and an icy voice, the deathly chill of her breath wafted over his face, and he was unable to doubt his mistress.

With that, Nua turned to the four who sat transfixed as their mistress or lady stood near, and the wood elf looked them over, bending forward, she patted each of their heads. “Are you all well taken care of, healthy, happy? Are you learning?” She gave them radiant smiles, their sweet, innocent and wide eyed faces had edges to them that were lacking before. Straen and Lenah sat straight and without flinching at her touch or looking away when her eyes met theirs.

Shi, as always, looked at her with absorbed and focused attention, like the little girl was studying her, and Veema looked at her with an expression that bordered on worship, her small childish lips slightly parted when the sea of icy blue met hers.

“Yes, mistress.” They responded at last.

“Do you have a favorite drill?” Nua asked.

“Snappy ones!” Lenah and Straen replied in unison.

“Red ones!” Veema and Shi replied together.

Nua looked back over her shoulder to Solution, the monster’s arms bent up at the elbow and her hands went out as she shrugged. “They call the ones where bones break ‘snappy ones’ and the ones where there’s lots of stabbing, bleeding, and cutting, ‘red ones’. I can’t say that I care for the names but… that’s children for you!” Solution’s laugh was like the chiming of bells, and the giggle of children accompanied it.

“Well, student of mine, you’ve come all the way here… why not spar? They’ve seen Sado at his best… how about you?” Solution asked and Sado moved well out of their way as if sensing the change in the air. Then sttern but fair Mistress Nua was gone. In her stead, it was Pain’s Mistress who straightened up to turning to face her Teacher. Seeing Sado’s actions and sensing the change themselves the four students inched their way back to the wall and waited for the fight to begin.