Prince Rasgen stroked his chin at the table and rapped his fingers in a constant rhythm. “Farmland enough for a village? Tools, farming equipment, inquiries about architects and builders? Inquiries about slave purchases of Komestrans? Well, these are interesting developments, aren’t they now?”

“My Prince,” Sobella said as they finished listening to the reports of those watching Nua’s slaves and their movements and inquiries about Pas’en, “I believe we have to accept the fact that she intends to remain, she’s no traveler, she’s planning ahead. She’ll have subjects of her own, perhaps not much, but if she invests in her projects, she may have a town soon. And if she’s bought the land from you, that means she’ll be under you. We have only two choices when this begins.”

“Ah-ahem yes.” Minister Barsam said, stroking his slender beard, “We can award her nobility so that she has proper status, give her one of the empty estates, and keep her tied to Pas’en…”

“Or we can kill her before she becomes a problem.” General Leaman said with his arms crossed stoically in front of himself. “She’s a foreigner, you can’t trust a foreigner… present company notwithstanding, Lady Sobella.” He said diplomatically and inclined his head with a sincere and reverential bowing of his head.

She smiled sweetly, and returned the nod, letting her hand rub the Prince’s thigh under the table.

“Well, eherm, My Prince,” Trade Minister Ulmin began, “If she’s going to be here, I believe we should use her to foment good relations with the place of her origin. Some small trade has always flowed between our peoples, even if it is many hands removed. And if relations are good, if the worst should happen then you…” Ulmin trailed off and he looked down, suddenly ashamed as the table glared at him, save for the eyes of the Prince.

Prince Rasgen finished the statement, “Won’t have to end up like Prince Sado, waiting to get shipped off to be eaten by the God-Emperor of the Tlalmokans.” He didn’t mince his words or show any emotion, his lips were simply pursed and his eyes briefly down to the table.

“I know, I know how quickly it can all end, old man.” He raised his eyes and looked about the room, “Stop glaring at him. A man whose love for his Prince lets him brave shameful words, is to be treasured.”

Ulmin gave a weak, grateful smile that wavered on his face before it faded. “I don’t like it any more than the rest of you. But after… well, he was my friend, not just my Prince, he was all of ours. Our comrade… anything… anything that at least ensures his son survives… I think is worth doing.”

“Ulmin, if there is anyone more loyal to their lord in all this world than you, I’ve never met them.” Rasgen said with a voice that was full of heart, “But I won’t run. Prince Sado may have been a stubborn fool who didn’t listen to good advice and thought he was invincible, but he’s going to die like a Prince should if not in battle. He’ll die saving some of his people. Don’t forget, the Tlalmok ruler surrendered one hundred Komestran lives to have him as a tribute, and he volunteered. He’ll die bravely. If Pas’en ever falls, I go with it. A Prince who abandons their city, is no Prince.”

The grim pronouncement, delivered with iron resolve brought silence to the table and stillness to the roving hand of Sobella, whose breath caught beneath her breast at the mere possibility.

Then the moment was gone as the Prince went on. “Still, there is merit in the suggestions, keep an eye on her slaves and see what they’re up to. Oh and, have someone discreetly approach them. See if they can be bribed or threatened or if they want to be bought. Different agents for each so it will appear to be different interests at work. You can tell a lot about someone by how their slaves respond to talk of them. Now… next item, sanitation for the lower districts, wasn’t it?”

‘So strange…’ Kaiji thought to herself as she checked her little sack of bread. ‘Every meal I slip one extra bread roll into hers, and yet my supply of them never seems to go down the way it should. Is this some… blessing by the stars? Do they hear my sadness and show their pity?’ She wondered as she slipped another roll into Priceless’s sack when the woman’s back was turned.

A moment later Priceless was undressed and lowered herself into the wash basin. The sun was already setting outside, but their lit candles would keep the room in an orange glow good enough for Priceless’s human vision to compensate.

Priceless sat in the washtub while Kaiji gently washed her skin, and again she found herself doing what she’d done the first time. “One… two… three… four…’ She counted out the marks on Priceless’s back, not out loud, but silently to herself, but this time, as she finished counting, she dropped the brush into the water and pressed the night purple skin of her forehead to Priceless’s upper back, resting it just below the base of her neck, and let her hands fall flat on the skin beside her.

“Kaiji… what…?” Priceless began to ask, only to feel Kaiji’s head rocking side to side like she was saying no.

“I… hate… her.” Kaiji whispered.

“The Mistress…?” Priceless felt her eyes open with fear, “Never let her…”

“No… no… I hate ‘her’. Lady Kaiji. I hate Lady Kaiji. She took a whip to skin… just like yours.” Kaiji traced her finger over the marks that ran deep on Priceless’s body. “I’m… I just wanted to say… I’m glad she died. That’s all.” Kaiji whispered, and with a shaking hand, took up the brush, and resumed washing her companion.

‘Lady Kaiji is dead, I’m slave Kaiji, property of Captain Aiwenor…’ Kaiji repeated to herself over and over until her hand steadied and her friend was clean.

“Your turn.” Priceless said in her small voice as she stood up, dripping water back down.

“Of course.” Kaiji said eagerly.

As she stripped, Priceless went behind her and quietly reached into her sack of bread rolls. ‘Why don’t these seem to go down? Before every meal I put an extra roll into her sack, and yet they’re not diminishing. Are the stars finally listening to my prayers? Is that it? Do they only answer prayers when they’re made for someone else?’

She dropped the open sack when she heard the water ripples, and began to scrub the perfect, dark purple skin of what, if things had been a little different, could have been the skin of her mistress.

When it was done, the demon-elf stood and walked to the window, she bypassed the trays of food that sat steaming at the table and looked out into the darkness.

Priceless looked at the food and looked thin lipped at her only companion. Kaiji touched her horns self consciously, her thoughts were her own alone. For a long time, or so it seemed, Priceless watched as her companion stared, unblinking, if the reflection of the glass spoke the truth, and didn’t move. Finally she went, and blew out all the candles save the one by the bed they shared.

When darkness concealed them but for the light of the moon and the faintest of orange glows behind her, she approached, “You alright, Kaiji?” She asked hesitantly.

Kaiji didn’t answer, it seemed she wanted to, with her lips opening and closing, but no words formed.

“She’s not back, you’re safe, we’re safe.” Priceless whispered, offering a comforting touch to Kaiji’s back.

“Are you… you’re not thinking of trying to escape, are you?” Priceless asked hesitantly, drawing closer.

“No. No I’m not.” Kaiji finally replied in a quiet voice, “I was just thinking.” She laid her hand on the glass pane and watched as the night rains began to come down in earnest again.

“About what?” Priceless inquired, moving to Kaiji’s right side and catching her eye.

“Do you know what demon-elves are?” Kaiji asked, prompting Priceless to rear back, startled by the unexpected question.

“No… I mean, you, but that isn’t what you mean… right?” She scratched her head as she tried to think of how to answer, but stopped when Kaiji laughed.

“That isn’t what I mean, my race, we didn’t come to exist naturally. The story goes that thousands of years ago, a powerful being appeared, and for reasons now lost to history, wanted to combine both races. Maybe he wanted to strengthen elves. Maybe he wanted to weaken demons. Who knows? Who cares? But whatever his reasons, he captured demons and elves, and forced them to mate, and somehow got them to produce offspring. Eventually, he raised up thousands of us, tens of thousands of us.” She looked over to Priceless with a wan smile, “Can you guess what happened then?”

“No…” Priceless replied anxiously when she saw the tension in Kaiji’s fingers on the glass.

“It’s… somewhat predictable really. The demons, elves, and their children rose in rebellion, and either drove off or killed the one responsible, nobody really knows. But whatever happened, in the end, he was gone. And when he was gone, the survivors turned on each other.” She snorted, “On one level it seems… stupid, they’d just won a victory and freed themselves, why do that? On another level, well, the elves and demons each came to hate each other for what they’d done to one another. And my people, the offspring of both, were not welcome by either. So we formed our own city-states. Some as far west as the modern Devor Empire.”

“Why are you bringing this up now?” Priceless reached up with her right hand, and placing it to Kaiji’s cheek, she drew the face of the demon elf to look at her.

“My ancestors did more harm to one another fighting against the one who created us, than they ever endured under him. And I was just thinking… as terrifying as the Mistress is when she seems on the verge of anger… as horrific as her power seems… life won’t be so bad like this. Just… maybe taking your advice, talking myself into all this.” Kaiji laughed bitterly and let herself savor the touch of Priceless when it moved to her hand.

“My greatest fear when I was captured, was what I could hear happening to you the night the mistress bought us. That or being eaten by the Tlalmok, I never made up my mind about it. And when… when she brought me here, I still wondered if she might call me to her bed. I know she won’t now, though. At least from that, we’re safe.”

“Isn’t that… good, though?” Priceless asked with her brow scrunched down, “You didn’t… want…?”

Kaiji shook her head, “No, of course it’s good, but it reminds me of Lady Kaiji, she never took her property to bed either. Do you know why it was that Lady Kaiji never did that?”

Priceless shook her head mutely.

Kaiji looked haughtily up and uttered in an imperious voice, “One does not make love to one’s social inferiors.” She gritted her teeth. “To lady Kaiji, the more wild sexuality of Pas’en was dirty, and since slaves are tools that work, taking a slave to bed, was as dirty as taking a used hammer into… that place. Beneath her.”

Priceless looked down, “Yes… I am a tool, just a tool.” Her hand slowly dropped away, but before she could step back, Kaiji snatched it up again and held it fast.

“No… you’re not. Lady Kaiji thought that way… I don’t. You’re not inferior to me, to me… you could not be better named. Your company, your companionship, your council and support… you ‘are’ Priceless. Never have I known someone to so embody the fullness of their name. Our mistress was wise in choosing that for you.”

“So… you were thinking what all this time at the window?” Priceless asked, her eyes wide open, reflected the moon that shone through a gap in the clouds as the night storm raged onward a few feet beyond the wall.

“How… lucky I really am. Luck I don’t deserve, luck I frequently hate myself for having, luck I despise because of what it cost so many others… but even now? Locked in a bronze collar, I’ve landed on my feet because I am without any of the pain that Lady Kaiji thought it was right to inflict. Isn’t that what you said happiness is for a slave, being free from pain?”

Priceless looked out into the rain and listened for a few moments to the muffled patter and the sound of rolling thunder, before she spoke. “I lied to you.”

“What… what did you lie about?” Kaiji asked, briefly dropping the flesh she held in her hands.

“That isn’t ‘it’ for people, tools, like us. We can have food, we can still have warm shelter in stormy weather, just like we do now. We can still be treasured by our owners… I’ve heard of owners who died protecting their slaves from harm, though I’ve never had one like that myself. But… even though…” The flow of words stopped, and she touched the pane herself.

“Even though… what?” Kaiji asked, putting her hand over that of Priceless.

Priceless shot her eyes slightly up to lock on the solid ruby like eyes of the demon-elf, “Even though we don’t ‘own’ ourselves anymore, we can still ‘feel’ things, and own those sensations, like your touch on my hand, it’s warm, soft, comforting. I love the way it feels. When you touched my scars without scorn, I felt… accepted. And even though my mistress, our mistress, owns those scars and this body… she can’t own how that felt. That was mine, and you gave it to me.”

“If…” Kaiji started to say, and Priceless stayed silent, her gentle brown eyes inquisitive, waiting for her to finish, ‘Are you insane Kaiji, yes, you are.’ She quickly shifted her thoughts and said instead, “If you’re hungry or tired, you don’t have to stand here with me. Go on to bed or eat, I just, I have thinking to do.” Kaiji felt a rush of gratitude that her darker skin could not blush deeply, and that human vision was not the best in the very dim and distant candle light.

Priceless smiled up at her, “Alright, I’ll eat, then go to bed, just don’t stay up too late, we’ve got a lot to do tomorrow.”

“Alright, you can blow out the candle when you lie down, I don’t need it.” Kaiji said, and went back to her vigil at the window.

When Priceless finished her meal and snuggled herself under the heavy covers, a state that to her, seemed like heaven itself, she fell asleep wondering, ‘Why haven’t my rolls declined faster… I gave her another one and still…’ And then sleep claimed her just as she saw Kaiji approaching the bed to join her.

“Don’t hurt her!” The white haired girl cried in misery as Bracer grabbed her sister and bent her over a fallen log. The sound of one crying and one crying for mercy for her sister meant he just couldn’t restrain himself, and he finished early. The one he used dropped into the morning mud like a discarded toy as soon as he was done with her.

“Mercy, means I finish sooner.” Bracer laughed at his brutish wit and tossed some bread to the one that had been begging for mercy for the one he was using. It landed in the mud, but she scrambled to pick it up, and rushed to her sister who lay crumbled in a whimpering mess. Her small muscles strained to pull her twin into her lap, and by some miracle managed it, and started to try to feed her despite the tears.

“Hurry up and get camp set up, I’m giving you lot six hours sleep, no more, then we go another twenty miles.” Bracer shouted, and his bandits rushed frantically to obey him. While they worked, Bracer began to contemplate how to reach the best possible ambush point in time.

“How’re we on food?!” He demanded as he sat down to work on his sword.

“Three days worth!” He heard one of his men shout back.

“Not enough, it’s three hours to the next village…” He stroked his chin and thought the matter over, tapping his sword as he did so. “Right, we’re doing a quick smash and grab! Rest now, but we’re hitting a village, no prisoners required, no survivors wanted.”

That merited a rough cheer, and seeing his toys had stopped crying, that the one he’d finished in was reduced to a choked kind of half breathing in her cooing sister’s lap, he settled on a bit of fun. He approached them and crouched down, she glared at him with hate and fear on her face, her lips slightly parted, her eyes glistening and narrow. “Your mother was a cow, dull, stupid, slow, and by now she and your other sister have been eaten.”

Their tiny fists balled up. “But you two are different, it’s a shame, maybe if you’d been born somewhere else, you might have been something other than just playthings.” He said condescendingly, purple eyes stared back at him with shining rage.

A tiny fist tried to strike him, it struck sharp and true… and nothing. He caught it easily, and squeezed it in his mailed fist until he squeezed a yelp from her. His eyes never left hers, and inspiration struck. “Tell you what child, you want to fight? Fine.”

He went and picked up a knife sticking out of a pack, and threw it down into the ground where it lodged upright after striking with a thick ‘squelch’ into the mud.

“Pick it up, attack me. You land a blow, I leave you both untouched for a few days, you fail… well let’s just say you’re not just fighting for her.” Bracer laughed, and the wild eyed white haired little girl screamed and ran for the knife. Her bare feet barely let her stand in the slippery mud, but she reached the short knife and came at him.

She thrust, and thrust, and thrust. Again and again she tried to get at him, only for him to dance aside with ease, kicking her in the butt and sending her sprawling, or parrying her blow and sending her sprawling.

“Come on, fail, and you’re first!” He teased her with a lustful expression on his face, he licked his lips, drawing a shudder from her entire body that was already dressed in nothing but mud.

She tried again, and again, and again, until she finally felt strength leaving her, and what she knew were mild swats from him, began to take their toll. The ‘play’ had drawn an audience of curious smugglers, who watched a mockery of ‘training’, until she finally swayed on her feet, and fell forward into the mud. “And that’s that, you failed.” He said with a cheerful voice, and she heard the sound of his pants unbuckling as he got behind her.

When she awoke several hours later, it was to the sound of screaming. ‘Was it all a dream? A nightmare, or are we waking up to one?’ She wondered, but not for long. The ropes holding her and her sister tied back to back at wrists and ankles were real enough, the cart in which she lay was real enough. Soon it was obvious that the screams were real too. She heard Bracer’s voice shouting orders, and when she lifted her head just a little, she saw sparks and an orange glow. ‘Oh, he’s doing here what he did to my village.’ Hatred burned through her like the pain that was already returning to her body. She heard the sound of familiar wails, a type of pain she’d never imagined before meeting Bracer, was now part of her world. His bandits were doing what he liked to do. She squeezed her eyes shut tight, and tried to pretend the sound wasn’t there.

‘Please… starfathers, starmothers… help… us…’ She whimpered before she passed out again.