"That will be all slave." Lady Karayan said powerfully after she was done explaining and I flinched at her tone. This was my mistress. This person I didn't know and who oozed danger. I bowed my head and stepped behind, standing beside Elisa. She had gone very silent.

It had gotten really dark by now and I was barely even seeing in the room anymore. I followed the vivid green of my mistress' eyes to remind me of where I was.

As if on cue, a timid knock sounded at the door and my mistress finally turned.

"Come in." She answered, her gaze falling on us. The door opened and I heard footsteps come up from behind us. I was not afraid. They were too timid to belong to a noble or even Lord Kyryaan. The area behind us seemed to get brighter though but I didn't want to turn and look. After what had happened just now, I had come to one understanding of my mistress. She was abrupt and as such you could not afford to be abrupt by her. I wasn't afraid of her, but I was wary of what a woman of power like her could do.

The person, who turned out to be the same slave girl from before, passed us and approached Lady Karayan from a safe distance holding two lit oil lamps. Ah, that was what brought the light. For some reason, I just realized then and there that I had not eaten all day. Neither had Elisa. I could handle it despite the journey but I wondered how she was faring.

"I brought some light for you mistress." The slave girl said with a small bow and all Lady Karayan did was nod. Taking that as her cue while we stood silent and unmoving, the slave girl dropped one of the lamps on Lady Karayan's dresser but kept holding the other. When she was done, she went past Lady Karayan, back to where she was standing before.

Still bowing, she said

"Dinner is about to be served mistress. Shall I help you freshen up and dress for it?" The way this slave talked, as if she were familiar with Lady Karayan.... I wondered if she was another slave belonging to her just like us. She seemed.... eager to please. Too eager to please.

"Has Lord Kyryaan returned?" Lady Karayan asked instead and I barely managed to veil my surprise. So they were indeed close. And where was Lord Kyryaan anyways? I didn't really want to meet him and yet, I was curious to know who this Lord Kyryaan was. Was he as dangerous as the rumors surrounding him said? All this waiting.... this dilly dallying was making me anxious and it was making my stomach twist in an unpleasant fashion. You know that feeling when you know that something is about to happen and you don't know what. You are afraid and yet, you want it to come faster? That was how I felt. I felt like something was going to happen and it wasn't coming fast enough.

"No My Lady. We have received no reports from the east." The slave bowed again. Just in that moment, Elisa's stomach grumbled very loudly, betraying her hunger. Everyone turned to look at her and I knew from the way her eyes were darting about that she was probably as red as a beetroot at the moment. I almost laughed. The action seemed to drag Lady Karayan out of her thoughts and her eyes settled on us.

"Take them to their room. Then return to help me get ready. They shall have dinner with the other slaves in the kitchen. Understood?" Lady Karayan ordered the slave and she beamed and bowed again. I raised a brow. This slave was definitely overdoing it with trying to please Lady Karayan. And Lady Karayan didn't even seem to care at all.

"Yes My Lady. Right away." She prattled on and then turned to look at us.

"You are dismissed for the night." Lady Karayan finally said and turned her back to us, going towards her closet and started stripping off her clothes. Milky white skin glowed at me and I turned my head and followed the other slave when she started to move. I turned to see that Elisa was looking at Lady Karayan with wide eyes and I had to drag her to follow us. The poor girl had probably never had someone just undress in front of her. I massaged my temples with my free hand. This was going to be a long ride.

The other slave girl closed Lady Karayan's door behind us as if it were some priceless artifact and I raised a brow again. Elisa finally seemed to regain the wits about her so there was no need to drag her again. But she was very silent. Lost in thought. As if processing all this. A deep part of me felt bad for her but I snuffed it away.

The slave girl hurried ahead, eager to return back to please Lady Karayan. We had to hurry with her.

"You would be wise to keep silent in this part of the mansion. The Lords and Ladies do not like to be disturbed. You may just become their meal for the night if you disturb them." She spoke, a ghost of a smile playing on her lips at the last part as if she wanted us to be caught. What was the issue with her? She had just met us. All my instincts told me to be wary of her. Something didn't feel right about her. I held back an eye roll. As if I had been planning on speaking even.

We moved for a while through empty passages, passing only few guards here and there and they seemed to ignore us mostly when they saw the other slave girl but I believe I caught a glint of fang once or twice. Vampires loved showing off their fangs. If only they knew the secret magic tricks I could perform as well. I would probably end up dead but I would show them. It was not worth it though.

After some time, the design of the passages changed, there were less guards and it seemed less fancy than where we had been but not shabby either and I could even hear some laughter in the distance. We must be in the servant's quarters then.

"These are the servants' quarters. Only the servants of the high officials though. The slaves of the lower officials are in a lesser part of the mansion." The slave said, confirming my thoughts but the disgust in her tone confirmed my other thoughts. She was one of those slaves. We called them fan slaves.

Fan slaves were disgusting. They were slaves who actually loved being slaves and would do anything and everything to please their master or mistress. Other slaves hated fan slaves because fan slaves could betray anyone and everyone to gain favor from a master or mistress. It explained why she was so keen on pleasing Lady Karayan. And why she felt like she was better than the other slaves in the supposed lesser part of the man. Slaves like these, someone had to remind them that at the end of the day, they were all slaves like all of us and could be killed at any time depending on the mood of the master or mistress.

She led us then through a lit passageway to a bright, but modest hall. The last of the guards had been a few minutes away from this place and laughter and cheer was coming from the hall. It looked like a dining hall and lounge area at once. I suppose this was where the slaves hung out when they weren't needed by their masters and mistresses. I had heard of these places but never really been in one. That's because they were found in only the richest and biggest households where there was need for them.

There were about twenty slaves here, sitting around, some talking and laughing with each other while others were just quiet or nursing bruises. They were all different and yet one thing linked us all together. Our lives were not our own. Some of them had collars while some didn't. Some were in bad shape while some weren't. It was the perfect variety to show just how different slaves could be.

The chatter stopped when we got into the room and all eyes turned to look at us, studying us like we were rare specimen.

"Melanie. Who are those?" A man's voice called out. I looked up to stare into one of the bluest eyes I had ever met moving towards us. He looked only a few years older than me, maybe twenty-three or something. He had this boyish look to his expression and he had curly dirty blonde hair on his head. He was for lack of a better term, pretty. Very pretty for a boy. She smiled, showing bright white teeth and I had to pause for a second. This.... man was a slave?

And anyway, the slave girl was called Melanie? Huh. Melanie paused as well and her entire expression changed. The girl completely transformed from the annoying person we had met before to a blushing giggling girl. It was interesting. She pushed strands of her dark hair behind her back and smiled brightly at the pretty man.

"Hi Cezar. Oh these are just the new slaves of Lady Karayan." She explained, her tone darkening when she said that but she still managed to keep smiling at the man, Cezar. He processed the information and then turned to smile at us. Why was his smile so pretty? Heavens. It would take a while to get used to.

"I see. Welcome." She said so warmly. I was almost convinced he wasn't a slave, except the collar on his neck said otherwise. It didn't look like your regular slave's collar. It looked more personalized and softer but it was a collar nonetheless. I was intrigued.

"Yes whatever, I have to get back to Lady Karayan. They have to eat and be shown to their chamber." Melanie said with an edge to her tone and this time I subtly rolled my eyes. She was such a fan slave. Cezar nodded at her for a few seconds but immediately returned his attention to us, his smile unwavering. Would he stop smiling at us? It was very distracting.

When Melanie saw that she no longer had his attention, she huffed and then spoke again.

"Alright I'll be gone then." She said and left, not so subtly hitting me when she left. Okay so what did I do? Before I could ponder more on her strange behavior, a woman, around my age laughed and walked to us, wrapping her hand around my shoulders. I barely held back the urge to push her arm away.

"Don't mind Melanie. Come meet the others." She said and Cezar nodded with a smile as well. I shook my head to myself and followed them. Still wrapping my head around everything.

Here goes nothing.