Nua grabbed Kaiji’s arm tightly, the gloved left hand of her mistress squeezed, and beneath the fingers that held Kaiji’s life in fear, her flesh submitted. The demon elf woman felt the yielding of her body where her mistress touched, but more than that, when her solid red eyes widened, it was in fear for Priceless. Her heart began to beat faster and her pulse raced, the fine hairs on her purple skin stood on end, and it was only her long life of discipline and nobility that kept her on her feet and able to meet the steel blue of her owner’s gaze on her.

Nua ‘walked’ her possession away from the long table, the feasting slaves took no notice. Through a gritted jaw, Nua spoke to her advisor. “You’d better say that again.”

The hand tightened unconsciously. Kaiji’s body flinched involuntarily. Pain shot from her arm, her mouth opened, and a tiny whimper of pain escaped past the trembling full lips. “It hurts…” Kaiji managed to mouth.

The steel of Nua’s eyes vanished, ‘God damnit!’ Nua cursed as she saw her slave respond to the pain, and her fingers came away in an instant, yanked back like a child’s hand that had strayed too close to boiling water. Nua could read the face before her like a book. The wide red eyes, despite lacking pupils, were expressive in their own way, with a faint twitch at the edges speaking volumes. ‘She thinks she’s about to be, or was being, punished… I’ll have to be careful about my left hand with her…’ Nua made a mental note of that in absence while her mind raced.

Kaiji went down to her knees, holding the spot where the pain came. She looked up and glanced behind her to ensure they were not disturbed. Nobody was making note of them, and her eyes returned to the beautiful elf who loomed over her like a goddess. She spoke hastily, “Mistress, she didn’t run! I promise you! Priceless would never run away…” Her head shook from side to side with such violence that her hair whipped like high winds competed in batting it back and forth.

“I can promise you that, I can swear on my life, on your divine god, she would never do that… Please believe me!” Kaiji pushed the words out as fast as she could, and with a quiet urgency to her tone. But on the beautiful, cruel face of her owner, she saw doubt in the way the lovely lips pursed together. She saw doubt in her owner’s body, as the dread left hand opened and closed into a fist, and in the faint sound of a tapping foot as it crushed the grass beneath her martial boots.

“You gave me your trust… I would not lie to you…” Kaiji said and hung her head, the memory of the pain fresh in her mind, ‘I am too terrified to lie even if I had anything to lie about… so this is how Priceless lived her whole life…’ The thought came and went, the sudden sharp pain had already diminished to a dull ache that would no doubt leave a bruise later.

Nua hissed her question. “Are you sure of this?”

Kaiji nodded her still hanging head. “She… she told me to love you, she taught me how to live like this. And more than that, she loves me, she would never leave me alone. If she is gone, if she is gone, something happened to her… I know it.”

Nua’s face was clouded and she looked away from her slave, out toward the cobblestone road where people went back and forth in the bright patterned clothing that was a hallmark of Pas’enian fashion. The more dull clothing of slaves made the possessions of others stand out. ‘But I left them with fine clothing, could she have run away? Not that I blame her. If ever there was a chance to run, when I’m gone and when she has access to funds and good clothing? And I know she’s terrified of me, there was a time when I’d have done the same.’ Nua breathed deeply as she focused her thoughts. ‘But then I didn’t have someone with me that I loved, either. Would I have run, if there were someone like Raymond beside me in bondage?’ The stirring in her breast as she thought of the dead man told her her answer.

She put her right hand out in front of Kaiji’s lips.

When the hand was presented, Kaji all but dove for it. She cupped it in both hands, wincing faintly as she brought the arm Nua had grabbed, up to join the other in the gesture. Her lips pressed lovingly to the giving hand and she turned her face to rub her cheek into it. “You believe me… thank you… you believe me, mistress… please… she needs help… Priceless needs help… please…” She felt a lump form in her throat as terror rampaged through her body.

‘By the stars I’m pathetic.’ Kaiji cursed herself, but only lightly, and it was consumed by a sense of relief far greater than any shame she felt.

“I do, Kaiji.’ Nua answered imperiously. Her mouth opened to speak further, but the words caught in her throat. ‘Apologize to her.’ She said to herself, but she said nothing of the sort to Kaiji.

“Listen to me. Stand up, it’s alright.” Nua said instead, casting only a fleeting glance at the arm she’d squeezed to tight. Kaiji obeyed, and was a regal woman again, with hands folded demurely before her waist.

Nua’s question was very straight forward, “Tell me… Kaiji, when was the last time you saw her.”

It took several seconds for the demon-elf woman to answer through her anxious breathing, “I, it was at th-the stable place, you know, where the military cavalry work, not the common ones. On your list of things to do was to acquire horses, the cheapest we could get. I went there, she knew the way, but then we got to the grounds. She couldn’t make herself go in, it frightened her too much. So, I left her on the grounds.” Kaiji’s lips began to tremble, “I left her… I left her… I left my Priceless…” She brought her arms around herself and began to hug her own body, the twitching around her blood red eyes told Nua just how certain Kaiji was that Priceless had not left on purpose.

“Then that will be the first place… visited.” Nua’s eyes returned to steel hardness and a wicked, savage impulse came over her, that set the jewel in her hand to throbbing.

‘You wanted my attention, partner?’ Yersin asked within her mind.

Nua’s eyes drifted over the table from one to the next. ‘Yes, you were at the battle with Bracer, who among them performed the best, do you think?’ She asked the gem within her hand.

The answer was quick in coming. ‘The one you call ‘Vargas. I could feel the death around him like a warm blanket. He fed me much out there. Three times more than any of your Breakers, including the second most vigorous, Freyjin.’

Nua settled her gaze on him. ‘Time for a power play then. And a little test…’ She thought and then returned her eyes to Kaiji.

She put her hands on Kaiji’s shoulders. “Slave, I believe you, you have served me with loyalty, and I shouldn’t doubt you after all that I’ve heard, either of you. Priceless would not have run away on her own. So there are only three possibilities. She was taken by someone there, one of the cavalry soldiers…”

Kaiji recalled the lustful eyes of the commander she’d been dealing with and began to shake her head in small, rapid gestures of desperate denial. ‘Not that… not for her.’ But she answered abruptly as quickly as the thought came up, “No, I don’t believe that, Mistress. She was wearing a bronze collar, no soldier of Pas’en would be stupid enough to do that. Nobody hurts a bronze. There are plenty of the lower class ones around anyway, and they have a brothel of their own on their grounds, or so I assume it to be.”

“I see.” Nua took another deep breath, “Still, not only can’t we rule it out, that was where she was last seen. So it is still a possibility. The second is that some faction within the city took her, hoping for something they could use against me. And the third is that someone from ‘outside’ the city did it. That’s the least likely, but none can yet be ruled out.”

Kaiji shook her head again, “Mistress, I’m sure she’s not going to be found in some soldier barracks or brothel, you are still new here, believe me when I say, no lawful citizen of Pas’en, would do as you suggest, not like that anyway, not for that. Not even to the public bronze.”

“You have something in mind, don’t you, Kaiji?” Nua probed thoughtfully.

Kaiji’s eyes had unconsciously drifted toward the hotel. “I do… but Mistress… to say it… it hurts… worse than my arm.”

“Say it.” Nua ordered and crossed her arms in front of her breastplate.

“Karlo. Karlo had to be involved. I don’t know what he did, but he did something, he had to have.” Kaiji stared intently down at the tops of her mistress’s dark dragon skin boots.

“You’re as certain of that, as you are that she didn’t run, aren’t you, Kaiji?” Nua replied and narrowed her eyes in suspicion. “Tell me.”

Kaiji nodded humbly. “He has an obsession with my nobility. He insists on using my title, I started hiding from him, Priceless helped me. She stayed at the room sometimes to deal with him… I would be ‘out’. Or even if I was in, she would lie to him while I hid myself away. He had this… fixation on me being free again.”

“You don’t?” Nua asked with a raised brow.

Kaiji did not even shake her head, let alone nod it. “I will never be free. You’ll never let me go, I-I know that. I cost too much, and- and that will be fine, I swear it. I swear. I gave my oath to you…” Impulsively, she thrust out her hand and took Nua’s left hand, the source of her fear and most recent pain, and kissed the gem of death that lay there. “You saved my life. You gave my Priceless a beautiful name, and let me love her without using her against me. I will never leave your service, even if you did let me go… I hate the woman I was. I hate that one so much it burns to think of her. So no, mistress. I am not obsessed with my freedom. I want only to make this life count for something… and…”

“And?” Nua asked while Kaiji spoke and kissed the hand of domination and discipline. ‘One day. One day I can say I’m sorry.’ It was a quick thought, and barely held, before Kaiji went on.

“I believe you are the hope of my city. So no. And that is why I hid from Karlo and his foolish fixation. I think he blamed Priceless somehow, like she was responsible for my resolve to serve you well. If she’s gone missing, I am certain he has something to do with it.” Kaiji released the hand she had boldly taken, and then returned to her demure posture before Nua’s arm had even folded in front of her again.

Nua turned that over in her head. It fit with what she recalled of the pitiable foolish boy. Her toe tapped faster on the grass and she lowered her head to stroke her sharp elven chin. “It’s true, he isn’t here and hasn’t been… very well. I will have Freyjin escorted to his home, and you will return to the cavalry officer, and demand an inspection of the brothel and the quarters of every one of his soldiers. She went missing while on his grounds, and Duchessa Aiwenor is less than pleased. I will send Sergeant Vargas with you as an escort. But first… run to the front desk, report Priceless as lost or stolen property, and have them submit the report to the city guard. And… put it about that there will be a reward for information leading to her discovery.”

“Mistress, what reward should I tell them…?” Kaiji asked, feeling her heart already turning to ash, ‘For all that I said, Priceless is only Priceless to me. She’s not highly educated, she’s not a beauty of legends, she has no specialized skills… even to my mistress, she’s a handful of coins at most, and that is just the principle that someone stole her.’

However Nua’s next words saw a phoenix rise from the ashes of her heart, as the blue eyes of her owner became as gold as the coins she cast about like nothing, and a soulful voice said like a quiet storm, “Tell them the reward for her safe return, will be beyond price.”

Kaiji’s eyes glassed over again, shimmering blood colored pools that forced her to wipe them to see her owner clearly, “I obey.” She managed to utter, and made her way as fast as she could towards the path leading up the stairs of the hotel, and as she did so, she had only one thought. ‘Maybe I can love her after all.’

Nua returned to the feast as if she’d never left, the wine was all but gone, and every soldier had a smile on their face the likes of which no one had ever thought they’d have again.

‘Good timing.’ Nua reflected and fell in beside Solution, she stood near the head of the long table with her arms crossed behind the small of her back, her feet shoulder width apart, she used the passion of a priestess’s voice as if giving a sermon to the minotaurs she’d left behind.

“Breakers!” She said proudly, and they began to set down whatever they held, conversation began to still, and eye after eye passed up toward where she stood. “First I kept my word to you in saying I would provide you the best possible equipment. Second I kept my word to you in saying that I would take no risk that you did not. Third I kept my word to you in allowing you to keep your plunder and the coin you made from it. Fourth I kept my word to you all in providing you a feast. And now…”

She felt the tension rise and pulses with it, she savored the moment of the pause, and then uttered longed for words. “Now for the fifth time since your submission, I will keep my word to you again! Sergeant Vargas, stand up!”

The slender built man stared around him in brief shock, his dark unshaven face not a little bit scraggly, he swayed a little, unsteady on his feet from the alcohol he’d consumed, but he obeyed. Nua managed a snort of laughter, “Hold on to the table if you must, but stay standing a little longer.”

A round of laughter from her warrior slaves brought a rosey blush to the one she knew first as ‘Elf Fucker’.

“In our engagement with Bracer, you killed more of his people than any among your brothers and sisters. Your bravery and skill in battle is an example to follow, to be proud of, and I name you the champion of that engagement. Per my promise to you all, who performs best, wins freedom for one of their loved ones. Name them, and I will claim them. By the will of the Prince, I have the right to buy any slave of this city, and if they are sold beyond it, I will seek them out and pay what I must, to keep my word to you.”

Stunned silence swept the table, and Vargas fell back to the bench in disbelief, kept from falling to the grass behind him only by steady hands that grasped him at the shoulders from either side.

“I… I… words… I don’t… I can’t…” Vargas fought the lump in his throat, “You mean it… mistress you really mean it…?”

Nua nodded sharply. “I do. Duchessa Nua Calen Aiwenor has given her word to her followers, and that is adamantite. If there is no one you are close enough to, then you may choose the loved one of one of your comrades.”

Sergeant Vargas shouted ecstatically and forced himself to rise to his feet again, his hands were fists on the table, he leaned forward with desperate eagerness, “My wife! My wife! Free my wife!”

He repeated himself several times more while Nua touched Solution’s arm. “Get her information.” She ordered while the intoxicated Vargas ran on a loop.

His entire body was shaking with eagerness and a look on his face like the light of god shone down from the heavens and struck him with religious reverence. His face did not leave that of his mistress, not even when he managed to break the loop and pass the information to Solution.

“Have that passed to the hotel messenger service. See that she is located and acquired before tomorrow.” Nua gave the brief instruction, while the perfect maid and perfect bodyguard departed with a twisted smile hidden by facing away from them. ‘Good work, my student, he’ll go to the depths of hell for you now, and for nothing but the cost of a cheap whore.’ Solution suppressed her laughter, but a tiny seed of pride in her student, she did not even wish to suppress.

“You can all earn this, for yourselves, your families, and one another. Fight hard for me, train hard for me, and remember that you are fighting for someone else as well.”

A round of whispered names known only to those who spoke them, passed around the table, but among them was a name that she had heard before, passing from Freyjin’s lips. “Veema… mother will save you…” A tiny whisper, an ember of hope on an elven face that began to have hope again. Though Nua could not see the woman’s hands, she saw the soldier’s arms.

‘There are fists there. Good, that’s exactly what I want to see.’ Nua kept her nod to herself, and closed her eyes to enter Yersin’s domain, and get her partner’s help again.