With the relief of knowing that Priceless was simply sent on an errand, Kaiji’s devoted affection to her mistress’s hand was redoubled, and then redoubled again as the understanding set in that the purple tag was to be hers. Nua seemed to be patient about it. Holding her hand still as Kaiji cradled the palm, kissed it, and rubbed her cheek against the calloused skin. She could not see that Nua was not looking down at her.

‘Do you see? Do you see? Do you see, Prince of Chains? Your noble woman, Lady Kaiji, at my feet?’ Nua’s cold eyes bored into him.

He read her words through her gaze, ‘She broke Lady Kaiji… my proud advisor, the wisest among my counselors, a woman of long life and great dignity… and yet look at her now? Is this what becomes of us all?’ He shuddered, denial stampeded through his mind, while all he could do was clench his jaw and stare.

Behind him, he felt the hand of Solution on his shoulder. A faint pressure, almost nothing really, but he sank to his knees without resistance.

Denial died when he felt the floor touch his knees, he hung his head, clenched his fists. His body tingled, and that didn’t get any way but worse when he felt Solution’s hand on his hair, she yanked his head back, and he knew what she wanted.

He watched with wide eyes, as his proudest and greatest, clad in a bronze collar, worshipped the foreign owner who bought her life. He caught Kaiji’s eye, and it seemed to him that the red eyes were almost glassy with tears. Nua’s words came back to him on a loop. ‘...In time, they love even the hand that holds the whip…’

He swallowed, and waited until Nua removed her hand from adoration. That was when Kaiji saw Sado for herself, for a moment, her entire body went into motion, only to freeze. She looked up to her owner.

“Go on, have your reunion. You have a minute.” Nua said indulgently and went to where she kept her coins, she began to tally them and toss them into a sack, the clinking of coins were the ominous music that heralded Kaiji’s rush to embrace the kneeling Prince of Chains.

“Sado! My Prince… My Sado…” She impulsively hugged the young man, her arms wrapped tightly around his body, she kissed his cheek, and tears fell freely. “I thought… I was sure… I mean I hoped of course but…” She cupped his cheeks in her hands and leaned back from him, “to see you alive again, it’s like seeing someone returned from the dead.”

Sado lowered his eyes and took her wrists in his hands. “I’m sorry. I’m truly, truly sorry. I let my plans, my goals, blind me. You tried to warn me, you all tried to warn me. I didn’t listen. I never listened, and everybody else paid the price. That was, I thought, going to be my last regret. That I didn’t get to say I’m sorry.”

“Time’s up.” Nua said brusquely and thrust out a sack to Kaiji and shot out her orders almost too fast to be followed.

“Run this over to the Palace, make it quick, there’s a lot to be done. And on your way out, stop by the front desk and tell them I want a feast fit to feed thirty… no…” She tapped her finger to her cheek thoughtfully, “Make that forty people. I want them to eat well.”

“Mistress.” Kaiji whispered faithfully and rose to her feet, she bowed, then parted.

Nua went over to sit at the table while Sado knelt nearby and watched her with abject fascination, and not a little discomfort as the lady’s bodyguard ran her fingers through his hair like she wanted to yank it again.

When she sat, she took her glove from off her left hand, exposing the false one and resting it with the palm up.

“I’ll be back in a short while.” Nua said softly and closed her eyes.

She was quietly sitting, and Sado grew more uncomfortable. He looked up at Solution with questioning eyes.

“What?” She asked sharply.

“Well, she’s still here so…” Sado trailed off.

Solution giggled and pointed to the hand. “She woke up the gem. She fed it life, and it serves her now. She named him Yersin, nice name, I think. She’s probably in his realm, speaking with him.”

“Oh…” Sado felt his heart shiver. “A true death worshipper… I heard stories about those from a traveler once, he told stories about visiting a far away land at the behest of a wealthy woman, and teaching her things about this place. Fantastical nonsense, I figured. But it seems the death worship is real enough.”

“Whatever you heard, it’s probably true.” Solution said with a sneer. “We serve the one god, the master of death.”

Sado stared at the silent mistress, and without looking up to the bodyguard again he whispered, “I see… well… if I… well, since I am a slave to death worshippers, I should learn what that means. Can I ask you, Lady Solution, to tell me what I need to know to survive?”

Solution stepped in front of him and crouched down so that her eyes, her beautiful, rich blue eyes framed by tumbling golden curls and pale skin were all he saw. Shen then whispered teasingly, “That’s the first smart question you’ve asked, slave prince. But let me tell you the first answer… I heard what you said to her, that night by the flames, when you called her beautiful. Fall in love with that one, and you’ll regret it.”

Nua walked over the ground, a narrow path that had become black stone, on either side it was framed by brown, dead grass. Beyond the grass, a larger number of dead trees stood still as statues and spanned to the horizon.

In front of her sat the cottage of her… ‘What is he? A comrade? A servant? A friend? Am I friends with a death loving gem?’ She chortled a little bit as she went and knocked on the door.

‘Come in.’ She heard the voice in her head, and opened the small, cozy wooden door of the thatch roofed cottage, inside, Yersin was sitting in the corner reading the sacred text of Nua’s faith.

He snapped the black book shut and laid it aside. “Welcome.” He said pleasantly, waving her in and setting it on the small table beside him. “You came dressed this time.” He smirked a little as he went and prepared tea for them both, his hands flew smoothly as moonlight over water, no flinch and no pause. Perfect motion, a master’s display.

Nua watched as he smoothly sliced a piece of dark looking bread and placed it on a tiny plate made seemingly out of bone.

Nua raised an eyebrow and folded her hands together in front of her on the table. Only when two cups were poured and he sat opposite herself did she speak. “Graceful. Was one of your… slaves, partners… friends… a master of the elven tea ritual?”

He actually smiled, his lips curling slightly more than a human’s might, revealing a bit more bone than a human might have behind his lips. “No, just… one part of myself. I’m surprised you recognize it, you’ve been away from your homeland since you were very young.”

Nua managed to smile back at her ‘sort of’ partner. “My father liked it, he made sure I learned. I couldn’t perform it, but I remember it by sight at least.” She picked up the black bread, “This won’t poison me, will it?” She narrowed one eye, squinting at it suspiciously.

Yersin shook his head, “No, no it won’t. But you didn’t come here for tea… partner. What would you like?”

“First… how did you know that bit about how long I’ve been away?” Nua dunked the bread into her tea and stirred it before taking a dainty bite. Her eyes centered on him without blinking.

“I’m not plunging into your memories or anything if that is what you’re wondering.” He snorted derisively and squared his shoulders defensively. “A king doesn’t break his word, not without something great to be gained from doing so. It’s just when you think hard about things, it’s like shouting them to me, I’m not even trying to eavesdrop, you’re shouting them a lot, loudly too, I might add.” He took a sip of his tea and set the cup down on the saucer and looked at her intently.

“A king?” Nua asked, her lip curled up and she laughed a little, “I don’t mean to laugh,” she said as his head reared back, “it’s just a bit difficult to picture an orb on the throne calling for death.”

“Another time, I’ll explain more, but why don’t you go over what you want?” Yersin replied, and picked up his tea again.

“I want your help assassinating someone. The Tlalmok emperor. He has two sons, neither of whom will accept the other as king over them. It hasn’t mattered ‘yet’ because they’re both too young to be competent rulers, and the emperor is a liger in his prime. But…?” She gave Yersin a benign smile from behind a cup she now recognized as bone carved.

“Right. He dies, they may kill each other or fall to civil war, if that happens, tens of thousands of beastmen die.” Yersin leaned back in his chair and eyed her with a new respect.

Nua suppressed her smile, but her lips trembled and against her will, the smile emerged. “Yes, many thousands, many, many thousands. I would call that, a suitable revenge.”

“So, how can I help?” Yersin leaned forward eagerly in his seat, she could feel the coldness of his breath, and his eagerness reflected something of her own.

“I had some ideas, and… I hope you’d be able to carry out one of them. You make amazing bread, by the way.” She said warmly, and he bowed his head with equal warmth while he poured tea for them both again, and listened with rapt attention as she laid out her plan for thousands of dead over drinks and biscuits in the land of death.

‘Such is the life of the slave.’ Priceless thought as she awoke, but she did not awaken as she knew free people did. Her eyes remained limp, shut, and her breathing did not shift from what it had been. Her chest rose and fell from where she lay without any kind of shift or change in its pace, the fruit of a lifetime of deception, every inch of her.

Her ears however, those were open wider than a whore’s legs on discount day. She listened. Her chestnut brown hair drooped over the side of her face, and from her position on her side, she had her ear turned upward. Voices struck her, ‘The one I spoke with. He did this. Why?!’ Her mind raced, she felt panic rising.

But she listened.

“I’ve never liked these kinds of jobs, you know. Sure, it’s easy money, but never knowing who we’re doing this for always makes me nervous.” The voice said and she heard the meaty slap of a fist landing on wood. She felt the carriage moving.

‘I’m in a carriage, I wonder how long I’ve been unconscious? Sex isn’t their motivation, I’d feel it now if they’d done anything while I was knocked out, maybe later? But… no, I don’t get that feeling from them. And I’m not some great beauty to draw men or women to have me kidnapped for themselves.’ Thoughts raced like horses as she tried to pick up clues from what she heard.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. You don’t like not having someone to sell out if it comes down to it.” Another voice replied, she heard the sound of rustling cloth as arms crossed, and felt a foot nudge her ass lightly.

“But this cargo is worth a crazy amount. Who pays that much gold for a common slave? I mean she’s not bad to look at, but this isn’t some infatuated noble’s son, I promise you. Whatever he wants her for, the gold is real. Same for the other one. So unless you’re suddenly independently wealthy, we take whatever jobs we can get.”

His companion grunted in reluctant acknowledgement of the point, and they fell to a mutually uncomfortable silence. Priceless continued to play off her slumber as if it were genuine, hiding in the pretense of unconsciousness long past the point it should have worked.

‘Do they know I’m faking it?’ She asked herself several times, she felt the ropes around her wrists, they were tight, and she felt some around her ankles. The bronze collar was still on. The weight of the bronze was seldom easy to forget, her head was on it’s side, like the rest of her body, ‘I lay where they tossed me. They probably tied me up immediately. They’re not taking chances. I can’t make a break for it. Oh god… they’re going after Kaiji… not my Kaiji… what will they do to her?’

“Looks like it’s awake.” She heard the voice, and cursed her fear. Her hand betrayed her, clenching when she asked the question of her lover’s fate in her own mind.

She knew better than to maintain the pretense when it was exposed. But she also knew better than to speak.

She let her gentle brown eyes open, and rolled herself onto her back. With no hood over her head, she felt fairly certain they didn’t care if they were seen so she looked.

Up on the seat was a goblin with a large ax on his back. He was well dressed, relatively speaking, with fine leather armor over a red shirt and black pants.

“Well, you’re not too stupid at least. I was expecting a scream.” He said and looked down at her.

Priceless shook her head with a small, rapid motion, she felt tears start to well up and her body began to shake.

“Good, a smart coward at least.” He grunted. “You cooperate, you may get out of this alive, you don’t?” He shrugged and tapped the head of the ax that jutted partially out from behind his lower back. “Well, there’s going to be bits of slave found by the fish, or some slave meat ground up in the shit that gets sent out to the paddies.”

A tiny whimper escaped, she shook her head faster and faster, and felt her body lose control over itself and fill the carriage with the stench of her fear.

The dark green skinned goblin wrinkled his large nose. “That’s the only part of this kind of job I don’t like. Keep the fluids in you, bitch, if I wanted them out, I’d cut the way to them.”

Another whimper, but Priceless remained silent and looked over to his companion.

A dark elf wearing clothing suitable for a slave, roughspun, still brightly colored like most of the city, and an iron collar around his neck. ‘The slave… yes, stupid girl, he’s the one you sat with, who else could it be?’ Priceless swore at herself, and her mouth fell open when he reached behind his neck, tugged something sharply, and leaned forward. The collar, pulled down by its own weight, fell toward his lap where he caught it with a free hand.

He set it to one side and then folded his hands in his lap and looked down at the gentle brown eyes of her own. Somehow, despite what happened, when Priceless looked up at him, all she could see was a gentle kindness in his face. He was totally at ease, like they were still talking on the bench. “You have questions, don’t you, Priceless?”

Her mouth fell open at the use of her name, but she managed a faint nod.

His voice dripped, honey sweet, from his tongue. “A boy, a stupid, foolish boy, wanted you dead or taken away because you were in the path of what he wanted. An obstacle. You know who we mean, don’t you?”

She nodded again, slightly.

“Say it. It’s OK, say his name.” The dark elf whispered kindly, he extended his hand down, not for her to grasp, but for invitation, “He’s not here, and even if he were, he wouldn’t deny it. He’s someone who hates you.”

Priceless bit her lip, and then with a half cracked whisper said, “Karlo.”

The dark elf male had a sharp, angular face, but soft looking cheeks set below a small nose and smoldering dark eyes. His soft, pouty lips only added to his gentle seeming nature, she could not look away. “That’s right, you understand. But… Karlo isn’t going to get his way, you see, Karlo is dead.”

Priceless’s eyes flew wide open.

“Yes, you see, Karlo got in with some bad people, and did some dumb things, the last dumb thing he did was try to get rid of you. All he really did was put you into our hands for someone else. I just… I don’t want to hurt you, Priceless. I really don’t.” The dark elf insisted and folded his hands together in his lap.

She looked at him with a furrowed brow and wavering eyes.

“No, I really don’t. To be honest, I don’t know what the ‘real’ client actually wants, he used Karlo as a cat’s paw, we don’t even know who he really is. He uses stooges like Karlo as go betweens, so you might be just fine. Maybe it’s somebody in love with you? Maybe somebody hired him to use Karlo to help you escape? We’ve seen it all. Do you understand?” The dark elf asked and bent over to put his warm hand over her own.

Priceless said nothing.

“It’s alright.” He rubbed gently, and she instinctively froze.

He drew back his hand as soon as she did. “No, don’t worry, I don’t want that from you. I’m sorry. Just tell me you understand, if you do.”

“I… I don’t, sir. I don’t at all.” Priceless stammered out, the carriage began to jostle as they hit larger bumps.

He smiled down at her and opened his hands like he was going to draw her into a hug. His words were low, paternal, like a father to a child. “We’re taking you to a… place, a place where we take the ones we’re hired to take. You have only to cooperate, and believe me, you’ll come out of this alive, we’ve never had to put down one of the ones we’ve taken. Just don’t do anything stupid or reckless… and everything, absolutely everything, will be alright in the end. Do you understand what I’m telling you, Priceless?”

“S-Sir yes, yes sir, I do. Just please… please don’t hurt me.” She begged with shaking lips, and from the corners of her eyes, her tears trickled down as if to wash away her fear.