Priceless lay prostrate on the floor in front of Karlo, unable to bring herself to answer the question he’d just asked her. He started again. “Every time I come to this room with something, you tell me that Lady Kaiji isn’t here. Everytime I ask where she is, you tell me she’s dead. Why is ‘she’ always gone?” He groused and clenched his teeth.
Again she didn’t answer.
“Slave, I shouldn’t have to ask twice, let alone three times.” He inched a little closer to her, and Priceless almost imperceptibly pushed herself a little farther away.
“I told you, sir. Because she doesn’t want to be here when you’re here. Because you keep using a dead woman’s title as if it were hers. There’s nothing sir can say that is as mean to me, as what you say to her. So no matter how often you come here, she will not be here to see you. Even if she is here, she will not be here as far as you are concerned.” Priceless felt her blood run cold under the hateful glare.
“I just want to remind her ‘who’ she is, so she doesn’t forget… that this isn’t her fate. The gods may be testing her with this, by putting her next to… something like you. But she isn’t meant for this life. You know that, if you know anything, you should think that is obvious.” Karlo got the words out, but only barely kept his growing anger in check.
“The gods put her beside me, it’s the only good thing the stars have ever done in my life. I don’t doubt sir, that you’re right, I know her beauty, her strength, her intelligence. Just as you remember… but sir, she hates that life now. She hates ‘Lady Kaiji’. She doesn’t ‘want’ to remember what you’re forcing her to remember. If you cared about her happiness, you’d let her live this life, find happiness as she is, where she is, with who she is. Not bring up a dead title from a dead city. It’s too cruel. So she’ll never be here. I’ll take your information, I’ll pay you. But you have no reason to see Kaiji to do any of that.”
“She was not fated… to be by something like you. You’re twisting her all up, getting her used to bowing and scraping, kissing a palm and taking punishments when she should be a ruler. She should be of some high station, but you’re degrading her, because you’re trying to make her embrace…" He waved his hand up and down in front of her, “this.”
It stung. Deep.
Priceless sniffled in spite of herself, and managed to answer. “This… is her life too, sir. Now please, stop doing… what you’re doing. Stop trying to force her to see herself as you see her. Even if she could, she doesn’t want to."
“I’m trying to help her. Why are you in the way of that, are you hoping to just keep her to yourself?!” His temper snapped and he barely kept from yelling it.
“No, sir, we’re slaves, she’s kept by the same mistress as myself. But if you keep trying to ‘help’ her, you’re either going to just continue to hurt her, or you’ll get her hurt, or killed, by our mistress. What do you think will happen? That she’ll remember her old life and you’ll produce a half a dozen platinum coins and she’ll walk free? Even if you could! Even if you could! What then?! She needs food, shelter, clothing, and she’ll have none of that! Who would take on the advisor to a Prince who lost their city, other than our current mistress!”
He snapped his mouth shut, scratched his head and looked away. “Oh… I… guess I didn’t think… well… I could, I’m not ‘poor’ I could give her a good life.” He blushed in spite of himself.
“So you just want her for yourself then? Is that it, sir? You need to kill that dream, it won’t happen. The mistress won’t sell her, and Kaiji said even if she were set free, she wouldn’t leave ‘Her Priceless’. Stop trying to insert yourself, sir. It won’t end well for you.”
His eyes flashed with brief fury, “I won’t be told what to do by a damn slave!”
“Kaiji is a slave too, is that why you ignore all her wishes...sir?” Priceless snapped up at him.
“I ah...no that’s not…” He stammered out, briefly flummoxed and shuffled his feet.
Priceless put as much feeble force into her words as she could, but she knew too well, it came out as a plea. “Sir, either you stop tormenting My Kaiji, or when the Mistress returns, I will report what you’ve been doing. She’ll not be pleased to learn that you’ve either tormented her property, or tried to inspire her property with thoughts of freedom and her old life. Swear that this will stop, and it’s over. The gods laid her here, don’t fight them, and don’t try to make My Kaiji into something she isn’t and doesn’t want to be, just for yourself.”
“You may mean well, but meaning well does not erase the tortures brought by misguided actions.” Priceless whispered softly. “Prince Sado meant well… and it made her a slave.”
Karlo went quiet. ‘She’ll report me? OK, that’s a problem. That’s a real problem. That’s a real big problem… one I’m going to have to do something about.’
“I see.” He said calmly, “Fine, I’ll do that. Just… give my apologies to L- Kaiji. I wasn’t trying to hurt her.” He smiled ingratiatingly and patted Priceless’s head.
“Good, now sir, do you have anything that can help?” Priceless asked as she started to rise.
“Quite a bit, Priceless. Quite a bit.” He replied, and began to run down the list as soon as she was ready to write.
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Kaiji sat in the servant’s waiting area of the Prince’s manor for… what felt like the thousandth time in a row. Her sigh was weighted down with boredom. ‘It’s nice that they give us ‘chairs’ at least… but would it kill them to provide some reading material, even a little bit. I imagined a lot of things about slave life when I was free but… nowhere on that list was this pointless, interminable BOREDOM!’
‘If I were an official diplomat or here on a state visit from Komestra, I wouldn’t be treated like this. I wasn’t treated like this, I was wined and dined and we laughed and talked with other nobles and oh divine stars they’re going to know me in there!’ Her mental rambling came to an abrupt and total screeching halt like the shriek of a horse as it reared back before going over the cliff. She bent forward in her chair and clutched her head.
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I… I’m going to know them all, they’re going to remember me, we came here often enough… the last time any of them saw me, I was Lady Kaiji of a powerful city and an important trade partner’s representative. What will they say, or do?” She said in hushed words to an empty room. “How didn’t I think of this, I guess… I was just so focused on taking care of business for the Mistress that I didn’t think about what it would mean to come back here.” She groaned and threw her head back and touched the bronze collar.
She pursed her lips and stroked her cheek as she thought about it, ‘Actually, it might not be as bad as all that, by now the Prince would probably have learned who the Mistress owns, there aren’t that many of my kind around here. He would have drawn the logical conclusion even without my name. I guess at least they won’t be shocked. It’s not like they could have forgotten that they killed my city.’
She began to shift her feet nervously on the chair and stared at the door, willing there to be a long line of wealthy or important people waiting to address the Prince.
“Looks like the ‘servants go last’ rule works in my favor for once, and at least the Mistress chose to dress me in fine clothing.” She reached down and touched the cloth, moving her hands over her legs, “Other than… that skill, and its single use, she’s really been very good to us. Especially considering I was an expensive ‘discipline problem’. Well, I suppose all I can do to show my gratitude for that is to work hard for her, and hope she’s pleased with my efforts and initiative.” She stretched out and yawned just as she finished talking to herself, and then a head poked into the door.
“The Prince will see you now.” A snobbish functionary said, and Kaiji stood, bowed with her hands folded in front of her, assumed the poise of the noble she once was, and started walking.
She managed to keep her anxious swallows to one before she exited the door and followed the functionary demurely down what she ‘remembered’ as a short hall, but which now seemed longer than a bowshot. She passed beneath the archway of the open door, and over the long purple carpet until she was at the end of it.
She felt familiar eyes on her, going from her face to her collar, and she kept her ears from twitching at the gossip, focusing all her attention on just taking ‘one… more… step’ until she reached the end. Then, with practiced ease made possible by the help of her Priceless, she sank to her knees, and prostrated herself before Prince Rasgen and Sobella.
“Prince Rasgen, Lady Sobella. Kaiji, slave of Captain Nua Calen Aiwenor, presents herself with a request on behalf of her Mistress. Will you hear the words I bear on her behalf?” Kaiji mentally patted herself on the back. ‘Fallen or not, I will not disgrace myself or my service.’ She vowed with iron will as the moment stretched, and she remained prostrated, awaiting permission to rise.
“Rise, Kaiji.” The Prince said in the forceful, noble tone she remembered.
‘He always reminded me of Prince Sado in some ways, no wonder I liked him.’ Kaiji thought, and kept the smile off her face as she came up to her knees.
“First… are you… alright, Kaiji?” Sobella asked, leaning forward slightly from her seat, only the slight tension in her fingers giving away her dislike of the situation they now found themselves in collectively.
At that, Kaiji could smile, she raised her chin to display her evident collar, even more clearly. “I am a bronze class slave. So I am unharmed. I was not violated the day of my defeat, and save for the… usual treatment, I was not otherwise harmed. I admit, I was saddened when I found out I was going to be given as tribute… and yes, frightened. But Mistress Aiwenor has not beaten me, my body is unmarked. I believe… I will live well in her service.”
She inclined her head with genuine sincerity, “Thank you… Lady Sobella for asking. When I pass to the stars one day, I will praise your kindness to me for this moment now that I kneel fallen before you.”
“I am… genuinely glad that you are well.” Sobella said with a kind trace of a smile spread thinly over her lips.
“Yes… after I knocked you out in your palace, I was glad that it was me, not someone else. I did not enjoy capturing you, Kaiji, but at least I could spare you what I could not spare all others.” Prince Rasgen said, and her mouth briefly formed a surprised ‘O’ shape.
“Oh… it… it was you who put me down. I never even saw the blow. Well done, Prince of Pas’en. Well done.” She kept her poise despite her surprise, though her heart beat swiftly and her pulse ran, she kept herself tightly under control.
“Now, you’ve come here for the last few days to request something, I regret keeping back this request from your Mistress, but if it were urgent…” He opened up his arms as if to say, ‘She would be here herself’ clearly being ironic.
She lowered her eyes subserviently as a member of her class was required to do when seeking favor from the great, and spoke with the eloquence they were well familiar with. “As you say, your Highness. It could not be helped. But the important thing is, I am here now. My mistress requests your authority to acquire the land around my former city. She has not said how much, but her wealth is surely known to you.”
She let the statement hang between them, “I understand that such sales are typically restricted solely to those who have already achieved citizenship, but given that my Mistress is already gone rendering a service to the city…”
The Prince raised a hand to stop her. “We’ve already decided to extend her full citizenship within Pas’en when she returns successfully from hunting down Bracer. Bringing down a smuggler, let alone a Headman ranked smuggler, is a significant accomplishment. Moreover, we wish to extend her the chance to ascend to the Purple, and acquire a title and residence within the city, which will include the right to purchase any land auctioned on Pas’en’s behalf.”
Kaiji brought her hands up to her chest, then with a sincerely happy face, she lowered herself and stretched out her hands so that she was prostrated to the throne again. “My Prince, My Mistress will be most pleased, as well as deeply honored.”
“Of course… now… Kaiji…” He said sympathetically, “Raise your head.”
She did, but remained in her subservient posture as the Prince spoke to her, “If you are mistreated, or are to be sold, I know how much you’ve been through. The stars endow me with the right to rule and the wealth to do so. I will not forget how hard you tried to stop the war, or that you advocated for helping us in the servile campaign. We will buy you, if necessary, and I swear you will not be on the list to send to the Tlalmok again.”
“You are the man I remember, Prince Rasgen, and you, the woman… Lady Sobella. It is, I admit, hard to wear the collar and… perform, this way, before those for whom I was once a peer. But this is how the stars have authored my life. First as a warning, that any may fall, no matter how high they sit. Second… that even the farthest fall, need not ruin everything. I have my Priceless, and I believe in my Mistress, even if I do not fully understand her. I am… making peace with this.” She touched her hand to the bronze. Amidst the court, not a few felt the dread of her words, of herself as someone to take as a warning from the gods. They instinctively touched their own necks, as if to reassure themselves that there was no bronze there, and audible exhales of relief appeared sporadically around the room.
The Prince snapped his fingers, “Bring out the document.” He said while still looking at the prostrate form of the once powerful woman. ‘Still, better to be her, than Prince Sado about now.’ He spared a pitying thought for his former rival and sometime ally while a servant came over with a silver tray on which sat a small, ornate red silk covered, rectangular box.
Kaiji turned her hands up to receive it while remaining postured low, and the box was placed in her hands.
“My seal is already affixed, and there are three coins of status, according to which of the empty places at court she wishes to buy. She need only send back the other two. However, there is one additional requirement for this, and any land buys she makes from the city.” Prince Rasgen said, raising his finger up chest height.
“And that,” he said sharply, “is that she uses only that foreign coinage of hers.”
“I will inform her of this when she returns, Highness. And…” She smiled sweetly at the enemy who protected her in defeat, and who she counted a good man and good Prince before she counted him a foe. “Sire, it is, for all that has happened… I am glad that you and Lady Sobella are well. I bear no ill will, it was the stars’ choice to put me where I am. Please, do not pity me, that is worse than scorn or hatred.”
Sobella looked to the woman of her kind who was presently, as she herself had once been, and squashed the pity so as to not further disgrace the formerly proud Lady Kaiji. “As you say, then go, return, and await your Mistress, may your chains rest lightly, and the stars look kindly on you in your new life.”
Thus, Kaiji stood slowly, bowed deeply, and carried the favor of the Prince reverentially in her hands, all the way back to the hotel.
When she returned to her room, she placed the little box on the table, saw where Priceless sat reading, and approached her.
Priceless looked up to see that Kaiji’s body lightly shook, and she set aside her text.
She said nothing, they simply peeled away the cloth that impeded the touch of flesh, and came together into their owner’s bed. There they offered up the totality of themselves, hiding nothing, baring everything. Giving and taking in kind with actions, what could never be done with words, until neither had the energy to move, and they could only lay there, entwined in the happy afterglow of the deepest and most sincere of affections.