“Bodies? Like… more than one? How many do you mean? Two? Three?” Priceless asked the orc that stood in front of her with his hands behind his back. Her own face was drawn and pale, and the orc’s already green face had lost some of its pine needle coloration to become more the color of vomit.
“We dunno, Voice ah the Mistress. They’re still being pulled out, when I left, there were like, twelve. I don’t count so good, not higher’n the coins I’ve ever’ad in my pocket.”
His green lips were not much less pale than his face, even without thinking, she recognized his shaking and discomfort. ‘I should have sent one of the soldiers to supervise…’ She then cursed her own self recrimination and began anxiously tapping a finger on the desk she sat at while her owner and lover were both away. “All in burlap sacks? All weighted down with rocks?” Priceless asked.
“Yes’m, well, most all of’m, like ten, but thur maybe could be more’n that. Dunno, I went ‘ere while the workers was pullin ‘em out.” The orc stammered out and darted his beady eyes around the room as if afraid one of the bodies had chased him to the estate.
“Did you inform the watch?” Priceless asked, forcing herself to focus and tapping her finger more rapidly.
“Came ‘ere first miss. Shoulda have done that first?” He hung his head and shivered a little. He wore an iron collar and the simple functional tunic of a laborer on the estate, brown pants and shirt, with a brown hat with a slight brim to it. It didn’t take Priceless a moment to recognize the fear.
‘It isn’t punishment, this was his first time being in charge and he was afraid of making a mistake. It’s his chance to rise and I might take that away from him. I know the feeling, I’d rather be whipped to death than lose this…’ Priceless absently reached up to touch the purple tag around her bronze collar, and pity touched her for the fearful young orc. But she had to ask.
“Why did you come here first?” She asked in a slow, measured tone with a chill slowly building from the base of her spine.
The orc shot out his answer as fast as he could and yanked the brown cap off his head and began to wring it around in his hands. “Cause I was part’a the group that went lookin for yah. Back when yah went miss’n, an miss Freyjin, she told us about the guy from the fancy hotel.”
“Karlo.” Priceless guessed.
The orc nodded as fast as he could and nervously rubbed the back of his head before speaking again. “Yeah, him. Don’t m’ember what he looked like, but one of them bodies, an there idn’t much’of a face left, but he’s dressed in right nice clothes. I seen them fancy ones leavin to go home sometimes when I’m out buyin things fer the kitchens. He dressed like them. Thought you should know first. D’d I do somethin wrong?”
“No… no you did the right thing.” Priceless said with haste, and put her palms flat on the table and pushed herself up to her feet. “Go tell the Steward to come here quickly, and…” She slid open a drawer and saw a small black pouch just where she expected. She took it out and reached in to take out thirteen copper coins. “You’ve got an account with the bank of Pas’en, don’t you, slave?”
The orc nodded, “Yes’m, all of us do now… kinda weird they let us ‘av that, even weirder tha the mistress lets us… but ah like it.”
“Right, here.” Priceless stacked them up in front of her in one small pillar, they toppled quickly as they were of the crude, uneven Pas’en variety, their little clatters and tink noises held his attention as much as the sight itself. “This is thirteen coppers, walk to the bank and deposit this… that’s an order. Then go inform the watch. And when I say walk to the bank, I mean take your time. Tell them you came as soon as you could. That will be true, tell them nothing else, and don’t mention you came here first.”
The orc swept his hands out as fast as he could to take the ‘vast wealth’ into his hands and clenched his thick fingers around them like they were an uncountable fortune. “Course! Yes, Voice ah the Mistress!” He left the room, and Priceless slowly sat back down.
“So, that’s where he ended up. Bottom of the water, probably mired in shit first.” Priceless considered and gave a slow sad shake of her head at the unfortunate young man. “Poor Karlo, even I didn’t want that end for him. But, he was mean to Kaiji so… oh well.”
When Freyjin joined her a minute or two later, Priceless filled her colleague in and the long haired blonde elf gave a deep frown in return.
“I figured he was dead and dumped in shit, but I thought he’d end up out of the city at some point, probably turned to fertilizer or something… do you know how he was killed?” Freyjin asked.
“No, I didn’t think to ask, does it matter? I mean, we know he’s dead. I delayed the report to the watch by an hour or three, but is there anything new we can learn from him?” Priceless asked, wrinkling her nose in discomfort.
“I don’t know, I won’t know till I go there and see for myself. But from what you’re telling me, this might be more serious than you realize. Every city, even Komestra, had an underworld to it. People who lived outside the law while inside the walls. You think of crime and you’re thinking of pickpockets and bandits, maybe smugglers and rapists, but there’s so much more to crime than that…” Freyjin ground her teeth and clenched her left hand into a fist.
“I’m going down that way and see for myself. Can I ask you to make sure the bath is still hot, goddess knows I’m going to stink when I get back.” Freyjin gave a weary smile to the little human colleague.
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Priceless gave a friendly smile of her own in return, “Of course… good luck to you.”
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Tir sat next to Diana, as the latter went over the various things she would need to know how to do, were all patiently explained to her. “This is complicated.” Tir said while twirling her white quill around in her left hand.
“Yes it is, yes it is. But you’ll get the hang of it, and I’ll help you in the meantime, just remember it boils down to a few fundamental questions that you need to answer for a ‘complete’ report, but some information is better than none. Just always make sure you know what you’re missing and try to fill in the gaps.” Diana laid a hand on Tir’s thigh.
Tir refocused her efforts. “So this one is sleeping with a maid belonging to his neighbor every Tuesday when the neighbor is away at temple, but that neighbor is also sleeping with the other one’s butler every Wednesday when ‘he’ is gone to temple. The employer of the maid thinks she’s had his child, but it’s really the neighbor’s and she started sleeping with him to cover it. So that’s four whose, two whats, three lies, and…two whens?” Tir said, and then her face fell when Diana removed her hand from off the warmth of Tir’s thigh.
“Four whens. When they’re sleeping together, but also ‘when’ she started sleeping with each of them, and also one why. It may seem like gossip alone, but how do you think the maid’s employer would respond if he found out that the child she passed off as his, actually belonged to his neighbor?” Diana asked and put her hand back on Tir’s thigh.
Tir focused again, “Badly. Very badly. At the very least he could take her before a judge and demand she give up the coins he provided her to care for the child, with no way to repay it, she may very well be sold into slavery, and her child too if the actual father won’t take it. Or the actual father may have to pay back the sum, and the child is almost thirteen. If there are no other heirs…” Diana began to gently rub Tir’s thigh as the woman got more and more details right.
“Exactly. And how about the other house? Does he have children already? Lawful heirs?” Diana asked, withdrawing her touch.
Tir frowned and hung her head. “I don’t… I don’t know.”
“Go find out.” Diana ordered, and Tir rose from the table and went to the file drawer, she sorted through family names and found it, yanked the paper out, and read through it.
“Two sons and a daughter.” Tir announced, then set the paper back and returned to her seat.
Diana leaned in close and whispered into Tir’s ear, “What does that mean?”
“If he acknowledges the boy, the inheritance is split, and as the boy is the oldest, he would be the lawful next head of the family or even if he’s not, he could get some of the inheritance.” Tir acknowledged while Diana put her hand on the fallen noble’s thigh again.
“Good… very good, so now… what does that mean for your mistress?” Diana asked pointedly and squeezed Tir’s thigh.
Tir thought over for a moment, her mind moving as fast as it could. “It means she can ruin any or all of their lives with a few whispers. The maid would probably kill to protect the secret, so would her son. The illegitimate boy’s siblings might do… what mine did, they wouldn’t want to share the inheritance. The actual father might not have or want to pay years worth of silver.”
“It’s like owning slaves that you don’t have to feed. Know the right things, know the right dirty little secrets, and you can become like a goddess to the free. The power that lies in that, all in the hands of a slave… it is in a word… bliss.” Diana emphasized, and then patted Tir’s thigh before standing up.
“Make sure to add reference notes to this document on both houses' information sheets, then move onto the next, I’m going to go out for a bit, I’ll check on your progress later.” Diana winked and her ruby lips spread out into a playful little smile.
“Ah, yes… ah, since you’re about to be free, should I… once you are I mean, how do you want me to call you?” Tir asked with a little blush on her pale cheek.
“Just call me ‘Teacher’, like the mistress calls Lady Solution.” Diana winked, and left the flustered woman behind.
Tir felt a bit flushed and her breasts heaved as the woman stepped away from her. ‘No wonder she was so dangerous, even I can barely think straight…’ Tir thought before she gave a pleasant smile to her teacher, “If you want that, of course… teacher.”
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When Nua waded into the water of her personal bathhouse, sinking into the heated water with only the smallest ripples to disturb the silence, all her cares began to fade.
Kaiji fell into step behind her, wading into the water at her back, and Nua took up her usual spot on the stone bench that sat beneath the depths. The steam clouded everything in sight, but it did nothing to hide the touch as her servant moved behind her and began to scrub.
“I’m going to see Rasgen today.” Nua said without evident passion, though she did enjoy the feel of the rough brush scrubbing at her skin. Kaiji might have been a powerful magic caster, but her strength was such that Nua could feel how much effort was being put into a thorough scrubbing. Though she never saw, she was half certain the demon-elf bit her tongue to better concentrate on her efforts.
That effort, hard as it must have been, felt even better than the scrubbing and the cleanliness that came with it. “I take it you’re telling me because you don’t plan on coming back tonight, my lady?”
Nua didn’t smirk at the teasing tone, or laugh, she only replied, “I honestly do not know. Everything is, well... remember how I said everything was different now.”
“Yes, mistress.” Kaiji replied and set the brush on the hook at the pillar and reached for a bucket. She dunked it into the wide bath and poured it over her lady’s head.
The heated water felt cleansing and Nua began to relax against the dark purple flesh of the woman who stood scrubbing a fine shining liquid into the short blonde hair.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been with anyone. I’m honestly not sure what I’ll say, or how I’ll do, plus…” Nua raised her left hand, and stopped.
“Don’t think of that.” Kaiji admonished her. “You’re beautiful, beautiful and strong. You’re not the mutilated terror you think of yourself as. You’re not.” Kaiji ceased to scrub and put her hands on Nua’s shoulders. She squeezed as tightly as her dark purple fingers could, so tightly that they paled at the pressure.
“If he found you unacceptable, he shouldn’t have proposed. Just relax, men in this part of the world are very passionate, and he will want you to enjoy it. I hate to admit it, given everything that happened. But he really is a good man, he’ll not…” Kaiji put a hand on Nua’s back, where one of the deepest scars ran in the flesh of her body. “But, if he does… I’ll kill him, I’ll burn him to cinders. You’re beautiful, my lady, and any man who doesn’t recognize that… I would sooner burn to ash than let them lie to you.”
Nua gave a low chuckle and the remaining tension fell away, “That shouldn’t make me feel better, but it does. And he has seen my left arm before, so if that were a problem, I doubt I would be going to see him now.”
“No, no definitely not. I’m sure word is all over the city by now about your engagement…” Kaiji embraced her lady, “The woman who walked into the lands of slaughter, and walked out again with a child saved from their claws. The captor of Bracer who robbed so many of their lives… and the hope of Komestrans. How could word not be everywhere? Especially after I used some of our discretionary funds to make sure everything you’ve done has been spread far and wide.” She whispered into Nua’s ear.
Nua let her body slip back into the warm embrace of the demon-elf. She looked up and over her shoulder, “Excellent, you were worth a thousand times what I paid for you.” The wood elf assassin sighed contentedly at the feel of a pulsing heart beneath the chest of her servant. “Now… about my husband’s advisors… is there anything I should know?”
“Everything, mistress, which we’ll have soon enough, once the Starlings have done their work, his advisors will become ‘yours’ as will this city, as my city, as my people, as this entire region… it will be in your hands, as I will be at your feet.” Kaiji’s laugh echoed around the walls of the bath, to be joined by that of her mistress, in a beautiful, ravenous chorus that neither wanted to end.