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Marta’s FOV

“This is it… we are dead!” I said to my co-worker, far from the creepy girl.

This girl was a way more experienced maid than me. It seemed that she survived two different masters so far. And she is not even twenty! I don’t know her from anywhere… but still we are stuck in the same boat right now.

I have been in maid school since these… people kidnapped me from my village when I was five. Killed my parents, beaten me bloody… and dragged me here to serve. Just like most of the others; they make us wear these chocker that kill us if we disobey; sometimes they even make them go off for a laugh.

While at maid school I managed to survive… only just. By avoiding most people and keeping to myself, but now? I haven’t even been properly admitted as a maid. That monster, with the doghead just went to the place and dragged me here.

I tough I was dead… There were rumours about him.

Terrible experiments.

By looking at him one could imagine… But no, he just made me serve this person. ‘Adam’

It seems he is above the monster… Not just in cruelty I would guess.

“It’s not so bad… we just have to find him something he likes and all will be well.” The pretty ginger tried to comfort me.

Too bad I know better.

“What if he doesn’t like it? What if… If he is offended? Wha—… what if he forgets what he asked of us and thinks we are mocking him… And were on hell are we supposed to find small clothes for him!?” I whispered loudly in panic. Because I was!

“Calm down… You are stuttering to much. I can’t comprehend you. Look I know you aren’t ready to serve… —But you have no choice, they will kill you understand?” She explained as she looked around.

“It… It is only a matter of time!” I rebuked.

“Yes it is. But we made it so far haven’t we? Just keep at it… perhaps something good will come of it. —have hope… someone once said that to me.” She replied, a somewhat far off look in her eyes.

I noticed myself chewing my fingernails… something I would do when nervous. All the time.

The girl noticed it took my hand. “Marta isn’t it? My name is Tina. You need to control that… these people are… well. If they see something they don’t like in you. Well you know.”

Once during class I heard a conversation between two teachers maids, too. About a girl who had disobeyed her master, they spent weeks cleaning the brain matter of the… Well.

I nodded. Damn, these nails had no salvation I noticed as I looked at them.

“Here.” She took her gloves off and offered them to me. “We must be careful and clever, if we are to survive a little while longer.” She gave me a soft smile.

Funny that. A smile here…

“Thank you.” I nodded, grateful.

“Listen… now that you calmed down, we must get our task done. Before he comes back. —Understand?” She explained.

I nodded and walked towards the door.

“Wait!” She placed a hand on my shoulder. “Haven’t they taught you anything? We must ask our masters for permission. Always!” She said.

It was true. They taught me that.

Wait…

“Do you want me to go and talk to her? She scares me…” I gave a subtle glance towards the girl on the couch. She was so… little older than me, yet the fear she gave me was real. A sorceress, a evil one.

A real one.

I still remember that night back when they came to take me. So much blood… My parents. My brother. A sudden retch came over me…

The other girl noticed it. “We will do it together alright?”

I nodded. She was kind.

We walked together to the petite girl, who was immersed on her book. I didn’t knew her nor ever heard of her. Still I didn’t knew any emotion other than fear.

“Mistress.” Tina spoke. The girl frowned and looked up from her book; She made a motion with her hand. That was! …

We all maids knew that gesture. She was activating it… the bomb.

Suddenly…! she just stopped with a weird expression on her delicate face; her purple eyes glimmered.

Tina went down on her knees and I knew to follow along.

“This servant thanks you, for your clemency.” She said. All I could do was nod. “We were tasked by master Adam. We would like permission to leave the chambers.” She had as shaky voice.

The girl was clearly annoyed, but sent us out with a wave. A thumbs up it seemed.

So we walked out of the room, the huge doors weightless as we both gently pushed them. I don’t know what passed through her head, but I am thankful to that stray thought. It save both of our lives. It was just like that, this life. We were dead just because of a whim of any of these monsters. There was no escape. It never happened, all thanks to this thing in our necks.

Exits? Those were secrets. Servants weren’t allowed to leave this place, we are slaves. We weren’t allowed to know secrets.

The ginger girl gave me a smile as we walked. She seemed to know were she was going so I just followed her.

I knew about the floors. They taught us that at school. Along with manners, cooking, cleaning. All of that… and some more. Supposedly there was a little market in the middle floor. The residential area. Were most of these monsters lived.

Yes, down here only the most dangerous lived. But they were mostly old and disregarded us lowly servants; funnily enough servant survival rate was higher among the masters. There was just…

Well sometimes a subtle mutation, sickness. Mutilation, results of odd experiments. When they had no one worse than their own servants to practice on…

The younger ones were wilder it seemed. Lucky me… I was assigned to a master and a young one at that. At the very least he had a mistress…

We were both used to walking so the long corridors were nothing. We entered the middle floor. Many people walked here, other servant girls, grey robed sorcerers along with little ones wearing white ones. Doubtless no less cruel.

The corridors in this floor were much more lively, pretty much every door had a stall on the outside. With other servants selling their master’s wares at their bidding. Some gray robed sorcerers and white ones sat at their stalls too.

Not everyone had the luxury of a servant. At least we were expensive… that’s a little comforting, I guess.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

There were no male servants.

I was taught that many decades ago, there used to be before… —But their mortality rate was too high. They were mostly used as bed slaves by the sorceresses here, it ended up causing much ruckus among the males. If a girl got pregnant they could just chop her head off. Now if a girl sorceress got pregnant; well that was a much bigger hassle. They had a hard time knowing who the father was. And there was also some stupid rumour of weakening magical bloodlines.

So it ended.

*thud*

Suddenly I crashed against something. Someone. — I violently fell on butt. Luckily Tina held me, otherwise I could have gotten really hurt. I brought my hand to my head feeling my hair on reflex and as I looked… —There were two figures.

Tina was on her knees. Apologising, I did the same.

They both had gray robes.

“This should be good.” I heard from someone from the background. A crowd was gathering.

“You shit, I will kill you! …After I’m done with you!” One of the sorcerers said with a wicked expression, licking his lips. They were both males. One had a limp. “Look at where you are going dumb slut!” The other one said.

Ho no… I… I don’t care if I die. Just that Tina; she is so kind… and now she is going to pay for my stupidity.

The Crowd was cruelly jeering us.

“How do you plan to repay us, miser?” The other one, the one that I hadn’t bumped into spoke.

Tina was quiet.

The one who I had bumped into, the one with the limp. He Lifted me up by the hair, he was strong. I saw his face. Gray hair and dark eyes, he was really ugly tough. It didn’t help to try and appease him; and there was also the fact that I was scared shitless of him.

“Considering that one wanted you so much, I will take the ginger. You are a naughty dog Dough!” The other one who seemed to be older said. They were brothers, judging by the similarities.

I felt something moist by my neck. He was licking me, a hand reached towards my chest. All I could do was surrender. There was no escape…

I noticed Tina. She was so kind to me. She was going through the same thing. They didn’t even had any decency from being amongst a crowd, it even… seemed that the crowd was keen on joining in the ‘fun’.

She is going to die. It’s my fault, if only I wasn’t so stupid… such a stupid girl. All of this for what? She didn’t even fight back… she was broken too.

Seeing what she was going through, something came over me. Some inexplicable rage. I fought back.

I pushed him away.

And he flinched.

“You stupid cow!” He shouted angered. The crowd was starting to close in slowly.

He slapped me; making me fall to the ground, and took hold of me from behind grabbing my neck with his huge hand.

Tina noticed it and suddenly attacked his brother, a knee to the crotch. Making him bend over in pain and rushed towards me, pushing the freak away.

“Now you done it… We are going to break you two after this crowd takes their turns on you. Raising your hands to your masters? There is no forgiving.” The one who was on Tina spoke; as he recuperated from the blow.

“Rob. I’m going to kill these bitches!” The limp said, and punched Tina square in the jaw making her topple over; falling on the ground with a thud, spitting out blood.

Then he came over at me. He punched again, —somehow, I managed to dodge and get to Tina’s side… She was alive, still conscious.

“Stop!” I screamed at them. “We serve master Adam! He will know about this… So stop…” I shouted amidst tears. I doubt he would care, even that he would heard what I just said… But I had to do something!

The limp rushed at me and dragged shoving me against the wall. He punched me in the face, I felt a surge of pain, dizzy even. Then came another…

But it did not hit.

I managed to come back to my senses. His brother was holding the limp’s arm.

“What did you just said?” The older brother pushed his brother out of the way.

“Wha… wh… what?” I stuttered.

“WHAT DID YOU JUST SAID? I MADE YOU A QUESTION DUMB COW.“ The crowd was receding. As he was shouted; angered somehow.

“He will know…” Suddenly pain rang out. I could not overpower him, he was a trained fighter and much bigger and stronger than me. A fifteen years old girl.

He slapped me.

I almost passed out.

“M…My…Ma…Master Adam!” I said.

He suddenly let me go.

“You… you heard that Dough?” He asked.

“You thinks these bitches serve him…?” Dough the one with the limp calmed down, he seemed uncomfortable. A strange look in his eyes. “We can get back to him! We kill them and make him pay for what he has done to me!” The limp said.

Rob, the elder one; suddenly slapped his own brother. Making him take a step back.

“You idiot. We must stay out of his way… You heard father’s orders! He is mad, crazy. You know what he did to you! You still have your leg just because father told master Doghead to solve the issue.” He looked away, terrified.

“Let’s get out of here.” The older brother said. Dough looked back at us with crazed expression, a mix of anger and fear. And nodded.

They walked away. Just like that.

The crowd dispersed.

Who is Adam? —Who is our master?

No matter… we were safe.

I reached for Tina. She was a little hurt. But she managed to get back on her feet. Even I had trouble walking. Thankfully I could not see my own face…

“Ahh…” She grimaced in pain “You… saved us both! I don’t know how, but… thank you.” She managed to speak.

I nodded.

We were both standing against a wall in the corridor side by side; the crowd lost all interest on us, they even seemed to be avoiding us altogether.

I couldn’t help. I started laughing aloud. Noticing it, Tina just said. “You are mad.” Then she started laughing along with me. “No… no… You are! Helping me in that situation? Do you have rats for brains?” I rebuked.

“Who says that!?” The ginger laughed again. So did i.

We sat alongside each other. Taking our time to calm down, and adjust. We were battered, both missing a few teeth I think. But alive.

How good it is to be alive…

—

“Crap.” The ginger suddenly said.

“What?” I asked.

“Master’s new undergarments! We don’t know when he will be back, we have to get them quick!” She got up taking my hand.

“Y…Yeah that!” We ran together, managing for a while until we both lost our breath. Thankfully… Tina found it. A clothing stall.

A boy a little older than me was taking care of it. Gray robes… he was one of them.

I looked around seeing nothing resembling small clothes, they had shirts, pants and mostly robes. There was a dress code, even maid uniforms. These came in all shapes and sizes… some were very, well skimpy. I can’t believe they make us wear this… What kind of pervert! Shameless.

Funnily enough, the robes just had the three colours. White; for children mostly. Gray, and black. The black ones were more expensive and fancy. It seemed that these sorcerers could wear their robes whatever way they wanted. As long as they represented their standing; the correct colour, and were actually robes.

What mostly varied between them were the quality of the fabric, and the embroidering. None of these matched master’s purple robe. That one was something else. Magical even.

“Stop dozing off!” Tina suddenly nudged me.

I don’t doze… I just get distracted!

She addressed the young sorcerer standing over the stall. He had short brown hair and a unremarkable face; he was wearing reading glasses as flipped through a book.

“Master… If I may. Are there, errr male undergarments in this stall? Not for us… our master!” Tina asked the young man.

He gave her a look and pointed towards a wooded box to the side.

“This humble servant thanks you!” She said.

I nodded along. Honestly I don’t know how she does it! I have trouble talking to other maids imagine talking to sorcerers!

He just nodded.

We rummaged the box. They weren’t organized, just a pile of clothes. Luckily these didn’t seem to be second hand.

Searching its contents… What is this? A man wear this? How would I know what master would like? I took the first set that came to hand.

“Will this do?” I asked Tina.

“Too small.” She immediately answered. I took another set, a bigger one. “And this one?”

“SMALL.” She was quick again.

“These are prettyish…! And how would you know!” I immediately asked.

“I had a male master before. He was old, then he died. But still he was quite sensible about his undergarments. I think all men are!” She answered with an awkward expression.

“So bigger… Better?” I asked.

“Exactly!”

“You are… a genius!” I quickly nodded along.

We ended up buying ten sets of small-clothes. Eerrr big-clothes.

But how would we pay? Do we have any currency? I will just well, let Tina handle it.

“That would be…” The boy looked to our contents. “Twenty points.” He said after some consideration.

“Put it in Master Adam’s tab.” Tina said. Even telling him were master lived.

“Wait… Adam… like Grandmaster Daryle’s son?” He got up and asked, he seemed enthused; but he scared Tina a little.

“Yes. I mean… his name his Adam, and he live on the th—… the third floor. Wait!? Grand…Grandmaster!?” I spoke up.

“Purple eyes? White hair? Scary as hell?” He asked.

“Yes.” Tina answered.

“I see. Tell him to come here. He owes me a favour, tell him this address.” He pointed to the door. That was were his room was. “Tell him that Torin wants to speak to him.”

Tina nodded.

Then we walked back home.

“Grandmaster Daryle!?” Tina suddenly spoke up… “That’s why master Doghead… Ahh.” That last part was a little hard to hear.

“Who is that?” I asked casually. “Master Daryle? What, you don’t know who that is?” She asked.

“No.”

“He is the leader of all of them. The most cruel… The strongest. They are all afraid of him, even The Doghead who everyone fears. He is his dog.” She answered. “Don’t let him hear you say that.” She quickly added.

“And Adam, our master is his son, and heir apparent.” She finished.

“Hooo!.” I said.

What have I gotten myself into?

After a long walk, we reached Adam’s chamber; on the third floor.

We walked in. And there he was… playing cards with his mistress? We approached them and bowed,

Tina showed him the contents that we bought.

He took his eyes from the game and looked us over.

“What happened to you two fools?” He then looked over to the box and picked up a… thing. “Ho! what is this… wait! I told you to go buy this; i remember!” Then he looked at his Mistress with a smirk and laughed. “At least you got the size right!” She laughed too. It was a strange; her laugh…

I tough she was just acting arrogant… But is she… mute!?

Wait… I know her. She is the Silent singer! Adam… and then…Ruth! That’s her name.

They are siblings!

Tina was all shy and respect… —But i actually laughed a bit.

I looked up to him. Tina too; and… he just gave us a thumb up.

“Good girls!” He added. I never expected that my first assignment would be like this! I feel… what is this?

Happy?

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