Taen spent a lot of time in the hotel, saying publicly he was waiting for his trade caravan and just enjoying himself in the meantime, the truth was that he was listening.

From a good table he could hear most of the conversations to be had, and with his natural talents, he wheedled details out of people who quickly forgot who they’d sat with or what the nature of the conversation was.

Most of the rumors were swirling around who was sleeping with whom, a few were related to business dealings. But then within a few days, three things caught his ears. The first was the currency exchange freeze on the new foreign coins. The second was the surprising amount of favor that the Prince showed the foreign woman, along with the planned offer of elevation to the purple… along with learning that the demon-elf slave was actually the chief advisor of the fallen Prince Sado.

And just that moment… the third thing. His room at the hotel let him hear the comings and goings from the quarters of the two women, in particular the young man who made constant trips there, leading to him listening at his wall first, and then at the door. It was while leaning against his door, that he heard the young Karlo stop and look out over the balcony and whisper out some frustration he could not keep inside. “Damn you. Damn you, you bitch… you’ve got to be just a tool of your mistress. Twisting Lady Kaiji up… she can’t be happy as a slave. I won’t let you destroy her.’

A smile spread over his face as he listened to the whispered ramblings of a frustrated fool.

That night, he rang for service, and to his delight, the fresh faced young man appeared just as he should have. “Come in, come in young man.” Taen said enthusiastically and stepped aside, gesturing with both arms enthusiastically.

“Ah, sir… how can I help you?” Karlo asked as he walked over the opulent floor to the equally opulent interior.

“I was hoping to… get your help with something.” As soon as the door closed, Taen wore a troubled face.

“Sir… are you alright?” Karlo asked sincerely, his eyes darting around the now silent room as Taen looked about as if fearing to be heard.

“Come, sit… I just wanted to… well something troubles me about my room and I wanted your help.” Taen said as he put his hand on the young man’s lower back and led him to the table at the far side of the room.

Karlo looked around again, seeking the defect he was expecting to be informed of, but finding nothing, he gingerly sat as Taen practically scurried to do the same.

“Sir?” Karlo finally asked as Taen wrung his hands uncomfortably.

“I… I’m not a soft man, really. I understand, slaves need discipline, and even among them, there is a hierarchy, one who stands over the others. But… the room next to me. The things I hear in there, disturbing.” Taen swallowed and blushed.

“Like… like what?” Karlo asked anxiously as he stared at the silent wall.

“Crying, soft crying. And growled threats. Like once I heard a slap, and someone said, “I’ll tell the mistress about Karlo”, whoever that is. It seems one of them has been trying to see someone, but the other is preventing it. I'm all for keeping property in line, but it sounds like a lot of pain is being inflicted there late at night. If she needs to break a demon-elf, then she really should take her to a professional. The one she’s talking to, well the bed must be close to the wall, because I hear that one whispering when I’m at my dresser ‘Lady Kaiji’ like she’s trying to remember something, when the other one isn’t using her.” Taen frowned, his face hung with sorrow and a little disgust.

“It sounds like the poor slave is being abused every night.” Taen remarked and turned his eye away from the boy, as if looking out the window, but watching the faint reflection as Karlo grew ever more angry and his face turned red.

“It’s so sad.” Taen added with a bit of a push.

“Y-Yes it is, sir. The demon-elf being abused… she used to be a wonderful noblewoman of high station, she was bought by a fearsome woman. I… I tried to help her once… I just made things worse. If I were more of a man…” Karlo’s eyes welled up with tears.

Taen reached over and touched his shoulder, leaning closer to the young man he said what he already knew, “You… you’re the ‘Karlo’ she cries out for, the one she wants to see, aren’t you…?”

Karlo looked down at the floor and gave a small, despairing nod as he clenched his eyes shut.

“Oh my boy… I’m so sorry, and now you’re going to have to just abandon her aren’t you, let her suffer and be used for as long as she lives… she’ll be hard to forget, but the only option…” He shook his head, “Well that takes money.”

Karlo shook his head, “Their owner would never sell, Lady Kaiji cost too much.”

“Oh, that’s not what I mean. You just have the underground take them, it costs a few gold, but for the right price…” Taen shrugged. “As a merchant I had a lot of contact with them when I got started. They would usually steal a skilled slave to resell. But they’re not particular, a cousin of mine used them to kidnap a slave he was in love with, had her ferried to far away, some papers forged for her, change of name…” Taen snapped his fingers, “Then it was done.”

Karlo’s eyes widened, “Something like that… does it really exist?”

“Officially no, and I can’t say I’d recommend it, it’s dangerous, and… look you can just give me a change of room and I’ll be fine. Do you really want to risk yourself for a slave? They’re just… I mean it is sad, but you can forget her, go buy one for yourself, you’ll get over her.” Taen smiled as he pushed the emotional buttons of the young man. He watched as protective instincts overrode all sense, determination, foolish will, came over his face and a faraway look settled in Karlo’s eyes as some stupid fantasy played out in his mind.

“No… I’ll do it, and I’ll have your room changed for you so you… don’t have to hear that.” Karlo replied as the guest took out a scrap of paper and scrawled on it.

“Here, read it, keep this, tomorrow, use it. And… good luck to you, young man.” Taen replied calmly.

Karlo took up the note and walked away, a few minutes later after he left, all he had left was the renewed sense of determination to help Lady Kaiji. A determination that held all the way to his empty home, when he stuck his hands in his pockets, and found the note.

“Where did this come from… did I? Get this from someone? Or… did someone slip it in my pocket?” He wondered out loud as he pulled the paper out.

‘To help Lady Kaiji and get rid of the problem, go to the second gong storage building at midnight tomorrow and knock. Bring six gold and your courage. Or leave her a slave forever.’

Karlo felt his heart beat like it was running from a battle, or toward one. “Lady Kaiji…” He whispered, and when he lay down on his bed, he fell asleep immediately.

Taen felt smugly self satisfied with himself after the idiot left. Gone was Taen the common when he looked in the mirror, present was the extraordinary agent of Kai’sen. “Snatch up those two, ask some questions and depending on the answers, let them go or eliminate them, either way… can’t very well let tremendous wealth and a sudden talent pool fall into the hands of Prince Rasgen. Not much left to do now, and maybe later… I can set this newcomer against the Prince, heh, wouldn’t that be a sight to see.” He gave a small frown to the genius in the mirror, “Just once, I wish I could be around to watch the aftermath of all my games.” He gave himself a deeply martyred, very obviously false sigh, and then after a little while, he pressed his ear to the wall, to listen to the ardent and devoted love making taking place on the other side. Then he went to his bed and flopped himself on it to go to sleep, dreaming of how it would all be torn down soon enough.

Nua’s decision to slow the march to make more time for training hadn’t been a popular one, she could tell that much, they’d clearly savored their time in the village. However her popularity among her slaves had soared so high from letting them keep coins from selling plunder, and letting them have a day for rest, that it made that one quite bearable. Her slaves continued to look to their necromancy practicing Captain and Mistress with fear, but mixed with that when she addressed them was a growing admiration. She trained with them, ate the same food as them, inquired with their sergeant about their wellbeing.

None of that was lost on Prince Sado, which was why on the fourth night from the village, he approached where she sat alone in deep thought, and sat next to her. ‘I wonder… she and Freyjin every night she calls for challengers, she looks to Freyjin first… something happen there?’ He pondered the question but put it aside for later.

There was silence between the two of them, at first he wasn’t even sure she knew he was there as her hands seemed to be shaking as she stared into the fire.

He just kept looking at the side of her troubled face until the silence had stretched on for too long.

“You’re an odd one... aren’t you.” The Prince said to his new mistress.

That snapped her out of her thoughts and she turned to look at her Prince of Chains.

“What?” She asked a little more gruffly than she intended.

“I asked if you were an odd one… more or less.” He smiled in a self deprecating way. “Perhaps a slave, even one in a golden collar, shouldn’t ask questions of his mistress but… When I was the Prince of a city and not just a Prince of Chains… well I tended to be bold.”

Nua snorted back her laugh, “I suppose you must have been. I heard a little about you from your people, they think very, very well of you.”

“That’s why you’re keeping me alive, isn’t it?” Sado asked rhetorically.

Nua didn’t even bother to deny it. “You as a threat would be dead already, you as an asset, I’ll keep around.”

“It’ll still be a risk. If my people believe that I was saved for a fated rebellion… Well have you heard of the Servile War?” Sado asked with trepidation.

“Yes, stupid war that one. Profoundly stupid.” Nua said frankly, including a sharp nod for emphasis.

“My grandfather agreed with that assessment. Unarmored slaves against a coalition of cities with armored soldiers? No, the slaves did have great numbers, but armor makes every man worth five compared to those without. I don’t want to spark another war like that, where my people are on the unarmored side.” Sado replied as he inched a little closer to where she sat.

“Do you really think you can take control? Peacefully I mean?” Prince Sado asked with his voice filled with doubt.

“I think I can either make certain it’s in everyone’s interest, or… make it so that for those whose interest would lie with war, that they’re readily defeated.” Nua said without looking at him.

“Well, you’re doing the right things as a military leader, I have been talking to your other slaves, they’re starting to believe in you. But… Did you really use necromancy before? I’m afraid I was knocked unconscious, I didn’t see, or at least don’t remember it.” Prince Sado asked, and when he got no answer, he put his hand on her knee.

She snapped her eyes down to it. “Remove that hand, or I will.” She said coldly, and he slowly withdrew it to place it on his lap.

“Yes, I did. The undead are dangerous, but those of my faith have the means to use and control them. Undead labor is widely used, and very powerful. I had our few remaining skeletons disposed of, but… my hand has enough mana available to raise a hundred more if necessary. Your faith seems unusually terrified of them, though. Why is that?” Nua inquired with a genuine curiosity that prompted her to turn her body to face him.

“It isn’t complicated, Death is fate. The undead defy fate. The undead are evil, therefore defying fate is evil. Every city’s starwatcher priesthood engages in weeks of rituals to keep the ground from being poisoned before our great battles. We also cart away the corpses from our wars and store them in enchanted warehouses that keep the preserved, that way if our tributes are ever increased… well a man dead in war is not less tasty to the Tlalmok.”

“I see, so you don’t have much in the way of necromancy here.” Nua said as she made note of that potentially important weakness.

“No, not really. Even the Tlalmok hate necromancers.” He looked at the small smile creeping over her face.

“Oh… you can’t be thinking…?” The Prince began.

Nua reached out and took him by the golden collar, grabbing it in her left hand hard enough to put finger indentations on it, she yanked him close. “You were a brave Prince, I know that much from Kaiji, my slave loves you like you were a nephew, but do you know what else she said, slave?”

Stunned by this sudden reversal of her temperament, he shook his head mutely.

“That you were stubborn, hard headed, didn’t like to listen, she considered herself to be a failure because she couldn’t convince you that what you were doing was going to destroy your people. She was weeping about that the day I found her, naked in chains about to be sent west to be breakfast for the Tlalmok. You don’t get to judge any of my methods, Prince of Chains. You will follow my orders. You will submit. You will help me unite and save your people before they forget what freedom was ever like. That’s what happens, did you know that, Prince of Chains?”

His mouth opened and closed half way, never finishing the motion as Nua’s teeth were bared inches away from his lips and her impossibly strong left hand held him fast. Bitterness dripped from her lips and fury roared like fire in her eyes, she spoke slowly, steadily, grinding every word down with hatred. “First they hate their chains, their cages, their masters and mistresses, they fear the whip, the lash, the torture. They try to resist it in their minds in some small way. Hoping to keep their inner self intact. Then… after the pain, they beg to learn. To serve well, it keeps the pain at bay, and remembering anything else at all before that, hurts. And because it hurts to think of time before chains, they stop thinking about it. Memories you don’t touch, they fade away over time. All there is, is the master or mistress, and all good things and bad things alike come from their hands. Every kindness becomes multiplied tenfold, and they try to love their owners. In time, they love even the hand that holds the whip. Their hatred… is almost always forgotten. And then? Do you know what happens ‘then’ Prince of Chains?”

Prince Sado was utterly mute, trapped in the shining golden eyes of the wrathful mistress, he could only shake his head in raw fascination.

Nua scooped a bit of dirt into her palm, and blew it away, scattering the dust to disappear on the light breeze in the cool evening, letting it be carried invisibly to fall into the fire. “Then, it was all a dream. The way the neck felt without a collar, the way it felt to choose a mate to love, the way it felt to just be able to walk somewhere on your own just because you wanted to… to enjoy the sun in the sky and the wind in your hair. To live ‘without’ fear… it fades to the ephemeral, and when it gets to that point… it takes a god to raise it again. Do you understand me, Prince Sado, that’s your future, that’s your fate. No matter how brave or strong you are, no matter how your memories go… if I want to break you like that… even telling you my intent now, wouldn’t save you from it, any more than mastering the sword will change an injury when you’re stabbed by one!” She hissed her words at him and shook him as her rage piqued. “And so it will be… for every living Komestran.”

“I’ll be a necromancer, or a killer, an assassin or a soldier or a general or a priestess or a monster… but I will get what I came here for, and along the way, I’ll drag your people up from the muck because that helps my goals. And if you or anyone else gets in my way, keeps me from what I want, it’ll take a god to save you from me. Better stay on my right hand, Prince Sado, because anyone in my path that isn’t on their knees, is going to find them cut off. Tell me we understand each other.” Nua ordered, but to her surprise, far from fear, or even anger, saw utter fascination in the eyes of the fallen Prince.

Sado, whatever his weaknesses, was no coward, and his eyes didn’t leave hers, when he said, “We do. But also… one more thing.” He said breathlessly.

Caught off guard by his sudden tone, she narrowed her eyes at him, “What?”

“You’re… beautiful… right now.” He said, blinking rapidly only a few finger widths away.

Nua dropped her hand away from his collar and shot to her feet. “Get out of my sight, slave.” And trembling in an anger he didn’t fully understand from her, despite her orders, it was she who walked away to her tent to lie beside her already dozing Teacher, and clutched her Teacher tightly to her as she very slowly drifted off to sleep.