Onimeus set the book down when he closed the binding and set his back against the cage. “Good read.” He drew his knees up and rested his arms on top of them. His eyes stared straight ahead, it was almost time.
Right on cue, Kaiji appeared around the corner and unlocked the cage without a word. She extended her hand, her dark, night purple skin was smooth to the touch, and against his will he smiled at the memories of his youthful pining for her before he’d grown into a man. He let her pull him out of the cage, and they began to walk.
“You really shouldn’t keep coming here like this.” Onimeus said as he looked around the wide open area, and toward the entrance where the hotel bustled with people coming and going.
“You don’t want to see me?” Kaiji asked, glancing at him with an uncertain frown.
“Not at all, I enjoy your visits, but if you come every day at the same time, if somebody watches…?” He spread his hands open as if the conclusion were obvious.
Kaiji walked in near silence with him for a bit, the soft feel of the grass beneath her boots, the give beneath her weight of the soft, still damp earth. She felt for a moment as if it would swallow her up. “They’re through the walls…” She whispered the dread words as if they were still fresh in her mind.
How long she stood that way, she didn’t know. But she felt the firm hand of Onimeus on her shoulder, “Hey, sorry, I’m sorry. Old habits. Always looking for patterns and the dangers they create.”
Kaiji placed her hand on his, “It’s alright, it’s nice to know you still care.” She looked down, and as she did so, something unexpected caught her eye. She crouched down, looked up at the blue sky, and then back down at what she saw.
Onimeus, curious, crouched beside her and looked where she pointed. There, struggling desperately, was a hill of scrambling ants. A group of red ones, and a group of black ones, and they were engaged in a desperate slaughter of one another.
“Look at that.” She whispered, “Do you think this is what we look like to the stars? They’re so far away, are they really paying any more mind to us, than we do to…” She swept her hand over the battle of the anthill, her shadow passed over it, but if the ants noticed it, they didn’t care, “...to this?”
“I’ve walked by here a hundred times, I never even knew these were here, maybe I even kicked the hill over a few times, and just kept going on without even knowing I’d changed their world and shattered their lives.” Kaiji looked away from her view of the ants, to the weathered but rugged face of Onimeus.
He pointed to the defending black ants. “The defenders will lose.” He said decisively. “The reds came in greater numbers, and the black ants are only coming out of one hole. If they’d had another, one behind the reds, they could catch them by surprise, and turn the tide. But if they had that, they’d have already used it. So? They’ll die.” He looked away from the slaughter to meet Kaiji’s inquiring eyes.
“I’m not a philosopher, nor am I especially devoted to the fates. Patterns, I just see patterns, and look for what they mean. The starwatchers priests say I should be all the more devout. They say that because I should see the weaving threads of fate in the great tapestry of time, and know how profound and wise they are.” Onimeus spat at the little battlefield, and a group of charging red ants rushing at an isolated black one, were suddenly bogged down.
“Am I that black ant’s god now? I performed a great miracle in his eyes, out of nowhere, saving his life. But I wouldn’t be doing that, if you hadn’t seen this and chosen to stop, so shouldn’t you be his goddess instead? Or how about your mistress, who bought you, or the slaver who brought me to Pas’en instead of elsewhere? Or should the stars be his gods as they are ours, if they ordained all things, they ordained that my spit would fly and save him.” He shook his head, “You’re asking the wrong question, Kaiji.”
“So what’s the right one, old friend?” She turned her attention back to the desperate battle, the tide was turning totally against the black ants, the reds were starting to force their way into the hole.
Onimeus pointed out the ant he’d ‘saved’. “Pick that one up, remove him from the fight.”
Kaiji did as her comrade said, taking it up by the thorax, and putting it into the palm of her hand before the closing reds could kill it.
“Do you think he’s grateful for what you ordained for him?” Onimeus asked rhetorically, the little black ant, which was slightly larger than most of the others, scrambled desperately over her hand like it was looking for a way down.
“No… I don’t think so. Not the way he’s skittering all over my skin.” Kaiji replied.
“He knows,” Onimeus replied gravely, “that everyone he stood with is dying down below, they’re losing, and he’s safe… sort of, at least not in immediate danger, but all he wants is to go back and try to protect what is his. He’ll do that, right up until he dies. If I could talk to him, tell him it’s useless, just like Prince Sado, he wouldn’t care. He’d still want you to put him down to go and fight. If he could make requests, he’d ask for your help, your godlike power… but with it or without it, he would fight to the death. Ants are impressive now, aren’t they?”
“What’s your point?” Kaiji asked, just as the ant bit her palm and she instinctively crushed it. She opened her palm and found the unmoving body of the squashed ant, and tilted her hand so that it fell back down to the hill where red ants were already pulling out the corpses of his fellows to feast on.
“That. He didn’t care about fate, he just had something he wanted to do. Whether you were a god, or were like those stars are to us, patterns are just inputs and consequences. I’ve never seen the stars do anything but get the credit. If Prince Sado had listened to me… we might have won. If he’d listened to you, there might not have even been a war. He didn’t, so we ended up like those black ants, many of us anyway, getting carried west to throw to the Tlalmok. I don’t think the stars give two shits about what we do, and I can’t tell the difference between fate…” He stood up with a groan as he pushed his hands off his knees, “...and shit just happening because of other shit.”
Kaiji let him help her up as she stood, then raised her foot, and stomped on a group of red ants, utterly annihilating them before she and Onimeus finished his ‘exercise’ time. When she returned him to his place, he got in and waited for it to close.
When he got in, he stretched out, and gratefully accepted a book from Kaiji’s hand before he spoke further. “I don’t know anything about this new mistress yet but what you’ve told me, but… even if she has all the wealth in the world, the death of Prince Sado is a heavy blow, and he had no heirs. She could buy us all, and if you want the truth, most of us would be just living dolls, like most slaves. Even if they got back their own homes… it’s a hollow thing to feel like you’re just a toy being played with by someone pretending to be your Prince. All other things being equal, we’d just be making a black anthill for the coalition to come after again.”
Kaiji let out a small frown, “Well… it’s been over a week now, when she comes back, we’ll see what plan the mistress has in mind.”
“It had better be a good one.” Onimeus replied while he stretched out again, and Kaiji walked away..
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Karlo trembled in the darkness. ‘Come on, just be a man, Karlo.’ He cursed himself as he ventured into the lower district. The stench down there was always bad, but it was getting stronger, worse, as he ventured closer to his destination. Figures seemed to haunt the shadows, thugs, brutes, the cheapest whores, ‘Lowly animals… like that mousy bitch that manipulates and hurts Lady Kaiji.’ A spindle thin slave with a frayed leather collar called out to him from the alley, she shook boney hips and waved him over. Even from where he stood, the smell of sex coming from there told him he was far… far from her first customer. He ignored her and moved deeper into the district.
He checked the sky and looked around, after a little while longer, he stopped seeing anyone, there were just large buildings, warehouses mostly, and some abandoned buildings. The older ones creaked in the breeze, occasionally he’d hear something finally break and fall, every noise sent his heart pounding harder and harder as he sought what most people simply called ‘the shit house section’.
He kept to the shadows, it was pointless as no one was around. However, the thrill of danger was as great as his fear. ‘I’m like a real hero now… I get to save Lady Kaiji…’ He couldn’t keep the broad smile from spreading up to his cheeks as he imagined her coming happiness. ‘What will she say…? ‘You went so far for me… how noble… you’re amazing…’ He imagined all the things she might say to him when they were alone, the thrill of the secret knowledge that she was waiting in his home, alone. ‘Could she… maybe feel something for me? Alone like that, everything I do, and will do for her… isn’t that inevitable?’ It was too pleasant a thought to ignore, and so he indulged it… she was so beautiful, exotic, perfect even. Never had he thought he’d see so much of her until she came to him in a cage.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
He swallowed, the thought was too heady, too much. He leaned against a filthy old brick wall and ground his back against it as he tried to restore himself to sense.
When he had, he left the wall and sought out the second building. He raised his hand, ready to knock, he hesitated… ‘Do you really want to do this?’ He asked himself, his stomach rolled beneath as fear set in, a very real sense of danger reared its ugly head. ‘Be a man, idiot.’ He cursed himself, and knocked.
The door that should have had no one behind it, opened, and a large orc towered there, its face covered by a thick, heavily perfumed rag, Karlo craned his head to look upward. He swallowed again, harder than before, and he tried to put force into his voice, but it came out with almost a scratchy ‘squeak’, “I’ve got a job for you.”
“Come in.” The orc said respectfully and stepped aside, waving him in.
It stank to the heavens above, and with good reason, wagon after wagon of human and nonhuman excrement lined the walls, set for delivery to farms and paddies all around Pas’en. Karlo reached up and pinched his nose as he followed the orc down a path wide enough for one, between two carts. He followed the path to the very back, then left to a back corner. There was a small trap door of wood in the floor, which the orc lifted up and began to walk down. The dim light behind them fled away, leaving Karlo walking in utter darkness when the trap door fell shut behind them.
“Careful.” The orc grunted when Karlo slipped and fell against the wall, striking his head on grey brick.
“Sorry.” Karlo said apologetically.
The orc only grunted indifferently and after a few seconds they reached a small door. He pounded a quick rhythm on it, and a moment later it opened to a wide room with a low ceiling. The orc ducked under the door frame and made his way to a table, keeping his head bowed the whole way, until he could finally be seated.
Karlo stepped through easily without having to duck, though he did glance up at the ceiling to be safe. The room had candles about, and incense burned every few feet, killing the smell… mostly. Though the rags remained on the faces of the occupants.
“Sit.” the Orc pointed to a chair a few feet away that sat in front of a curtain against the wall.
Karlo took a deep breath, squared his shoulders, and forced a brave face. Every step to the chair seemed as loud as a war drum, ‘Don’t embarrass yourself. You’re the client here, you’re in the right, and you’ve got money. They’ll do what you say.’
Clutching the gold coins in his pocket, he felt his confidence rise and managed to make his way to the chair and sat down without tripping over himself.
“What you want?” The orc asked abruptly.
“I need… I need you to capture a slave for me. Well… two slaves. A lying, evil bitch who is manipulating another one into subservience. And… the other… too good for what’s happened to her. It’s…” he hesitated, ‘wait, am I going to say what I think I’m going to?’ He froze with his mouth open.
“A matter of love, idn’it boy.” A masked dark elf said from the table, he played idly with a short knife of orichalcum, pressing the tip to his tan fingers and twisting it about.
Karlo expected the others to laugh when his face turned red with embarrassment, but when they didn’t, he nodded. “I-I yes, yes I guess. Is that so bad, she’s amazing, she did so much for me, and she’s beautiful, and generous, and kind… bad things put her where she is but… I can’t let her stay like that! There’s this mousy brown haired evil bitch, won’t let me near her. She keeps saying to leave her alone, but… no. No slave like that is going to tell me a damn thing!” Karlo snapped and slammed his fist on his thigh.
A goblin with a battle axe that seemed too large for him, seated opposite the dark elf, was the next to speak. “I see, so… you want us to get rid of that one for you? And take the other one?”
“Yes! Please!” Karlo exclaimed, then leaned forward and darted his hand into his pocket, he grabbed for his coins and rambled urgently “I don’t care what you do with the brown haired one… ah, Priceless, that’s her name. Mockery of a name that one, probably didn’t cost ten coppers to buy, but… somehow she’s got Kaiji all pliant and is keeping her from me… or me from her, or both.”
“Get her to a smuggler, slit her throat, fake some papers and sell her off somewhere, I don’t care but… get her out of the way so she can’t say anything to her Mistress when the woman comes back…” Karlo then went on to explain everything he knew, what they looked like, what he knew of their routine, their room, their food preferences, even a glimpse at their intended tasks that had been left on a dresser while he’d talked to the ‘mousy bitch’.
Finally, he ran out of breath, and stopped.
“And… and that’s everything, I’ve… I’ve got the money I need to pay you.” He said and opened his palm, revealing the six gold coins.
“Alright, boy, but that leaves one question…” The dark elf replied and set his dagger down.
“Yes, anything!” Karlo replied with wild, hopeful eyes.
“How’d you find us? You’re not one of our regulars. I’ve never done business with you, anyone else?” The dark elf asked his companions at the table, and with crossed arms, the orc and goblin both shook their heads.
“Oh, well…” Karlo scratched his head, “This may sound crazy, but… I guess some anonymous benefactor heard me muttering or something, I don’t really know, but I found this note in my pocket, telling me to bring the coins and tell you everything to help my Lady Kaiji.
Broad smiles that should have seemed pleasant, but which sent chills down his spine, formed from one to the next.
“Right. Got it.” The dark elf replied, “Well not to worry, we’ll get them both, you don’t have to worry about anything.”
Karlo sighed and slumped forward, “Thank you… thank you so much, I admit I had my doubts but… I guess this was the best choice.”
“Yup.” The goblin picked up his axe one handed and began to caress the edge with one finger.
“Very much so.” The dark elf answered, “Just think about it, boy. In a few weeks, that slave you love, who’s in all that pain and fear, she’ll be in your arms in your home. The one in the way will be dead or being carted off far away, to another place to bow and scrape, or to be eaten. But you…? You’ll have her wrapped in your arms, she’ll tell you how grateful she is, how thankful she is to you… can’t you just see it now?” He gave an almost gentle look of understanding, with a deeply romantic sigh.
“Yeah… it’ll be… wonderful.” Karlo allowed himself to indulge in the fantasy again, he closed his eyes and savored the thought of Lady Kaiji’s sweet scent so close again, and… though he knew he shouldn’t have… that naked body he saw so close to him, and yet so out of reach behind someone else’s cage. ‘I guess, do I really have to ‘free her’ after I ah, rescue her?’ He wondered as he tried to imagine her saying ‘Master Karlo…’ in that wonderful noble voice…
He never saw, with his eyes closed and lost in his dreams, how his life was about to end. From behind the curtain, a sword thrust out, it pierced the flesh of his back. It ran through his lung, and emerged out of his chest. He had a few moments of pain, shock, horror. He lifted his hand, already gurgling blood out of his open, disbelieving mouth, and touched the sword that he saw there. He wondered, and tried to ask his final questions... ‘How… how did that get there… this… can’t be it. My Kaiji… I wanted… I was supposed to… I’m the hero… the good guy… I’m supposed to win. A-Aren’t I?’ But only blood and gurgles entered the air from out of his mouth, and no words. The sword drew back, and he lived long enough to feel the kick behind him against the back of the chair. He lived long enough to feel his body falling, but did not survive long enough to feel his head strike the floor.
From behind the curtain, a half elf emerged and tossed the sword to the floor where it landed with a clatter. He looked over his subordinates, “Looks like Taen has sent us another job, boys.” He pointed a slender arm at the ax wielding goblin. “Grekin, you’re up, cut up the limbs and toss his body in the water, I want both these slaves captured and taken to the usual place by the end of the week… unlike this idiot,” He nudged Karlo’s corpse with a bloodstained boot, “both alive.”
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Prince Rasgen stormed through the halls of his royal home. “How could this happen?! A raid on a tribute?! The Prince of Komestra, gone!” He shouted his fury so that it echoed up and down the halls, waving his hands and still clutching the document tight enough that his fingers tore through it.
Sobella was the first to hear him… or at least the first to acknowledge it, she rushed from her private quarters, her dress and raiment lifted by the breeze from the swiftness of her rush to her paramor. She clutched at his cheeks, “My Prince…” She focused her deep red eyes on him, “Did he escape…? Was it Komestrans or…?”
“No, my dear, my sweet Sobella…” he touched her hand with the one not holding the document, “Komestrans would have tried to rescue all of their own. This was a calculated raid by smugglers. Maybe Bracer himself. I’m certain Sado didn’t escape, whatever his flaws, he was, is, the sort of man to die for his people. I’m confident he didn’t go willingly with the ones to attack his wagon. Now… now he’s useless to us even if we recapture him.”
Sobella looked up at him at a loss. “You’ve… well that’s right, you wouldn’t know. They’ll consider him a ‘tainted gift’ maybe if one of their own merchants got him but… from us, it would be treated as some kind taunt.” Rasgen’s voice took on a childish, singsong quality, he even bobbed his head in a childishly rhythmic fashion as he spoke, “Oh here, have this gift… never mind, we lost it… but oh, here it is again…” His head shook with vigor. “He’s useless to us now. If we find the smuggler, I suppose we can have him beheaded, and use the Prince as a hostage just in case of another servile upset.” Rasgen leaned against the wall and looked at her with troubled, shaking pools within his eyes.
“What are you not telling me…?” Sobella whispered close to him.
“There will be a price for this offense. A terrible price. My only hope is that they’ll accept the token tribute of the dead as a bonus, or perhaps some extra Komestran slaves. But it isn’t unheard of for an insult like this, an offense like this, to require the life of the Prince themselves. If they call for me, I have to go, but I have no heir… and also, I-I don’t want to die.” He whispered shakily into her ear.
“I can’t ensure your life… but at least… if it happens, let me ensure your line.” She whispered to him with a catch in her voice. “Maybe… our child could never inherit the throne. But it would be a piece of your greatness still part of this world.
...Three days later...
“Well… isn’t this just a grand old time.” Prince Rasgen snapped within his council chamber as he signed the letter of apology to the God-Emperor of the Tlalmok. A form letter that abased himself as being inferior in every way… a requirement to avoid a punitive expedition. The first of two unfortunate steps.
“My Prince…” Ulmin whispered, “It can’t be helped. You did everything right, no smuggler has ever raided a tribute before!” His hands trembled, more from frustration than from age.
“Maybe not, but this is ‘Bracer’ we’re talking about, maybe I should have lent Captain Aiwenor some additional support from our guard, he’s probably killed her by now if he managed that much, that’s assuming she’s even found him. Damn smugglers are always on the move.” Rasgen grumbled, “Well, let’s see what it is they want in compensation for the ‘insult’ of losing the tribute.” He took up another letter and split the seal open, unfolded it, and looked.
All was silent at the table, until he took up the knife he’d used to open the seal and slammed it into the table hard enough to bury it to the hilt. The table rattled and the cups of wine from one end to the other, toppled and fell, sloshing wine over laps and papers and spreading out over the surface like a miniature flood.
Sobella involuntarily jumped a bit in her seat, startled at his reaction. “My Prince… what do they want?” She paled at his wavering eyes.
“They want… they want… you. They want ‘you’... Sobella.” Prince Rasgen replied with his lip already trembling and hands shaking like leaves in the breeze..
The dark skin of the demon-elf companion of the Prince turned ashen and pale. Her hand on the table started to tremble along with those of her paramor.
“Or?” She asked quietly, “Twisted as they are, they love to present impossible choices, what else do they want?”
“Five hundred free citizens. No slaves. One or the other, within thirty days.” Prince Rasgen dropped the letter, instinctively the hand of Prince and paramor reached one another, and clasped tight.
“The people won’t accept another levy, not so quickly.” Ulmin shook his head forcefully.
“So… those are our choices.” Sobella said with a soft voice and shaking, clenched hands, “We go to war with another city… so soon, and take five hundred of their free citizens. Or, we risk a revolt from within. Or I die.”
She took a long breath, leaned over, and kissed her Prince tenderly upon his cheek and whispered lovingly into his ear, “This… was wonderful, this life, while it lasted.”