It still took a few hours in the carriage until the duo returned to Kings Hold. Balin exited after Bernhard. Once the driver left the two alone again Bernhard asked Balin the question he set up earlier.

“So, tell me Balin what will you do?”

Balin took a knee and proclaimed.

“I thought this through and you are right. I do deserve punishment for my actions and even attacked you. Someone who was completely innocent of the crimes that I thought you committed. After everything you did for me, including having spared my life, it is only fair for me to give myself to you. I am yours.”

“Alright. Balin then this will be my first order towards you as my slave. Go to your quarters and stay there the night! Do not leave until I return! Do not break my trust towards you! Understood?”

“Yes master.”

“Good, you are dismissed.”

Without even waiting for a response Bernhard turned around and left Balin. Balin made his way towards the apartment given to him, wondering why Bernhard acted so uncharacteristically harsh toward him. In the darkness of the night Balin finally arrived at his residence, he was walking up the last few stairs to the house entrance, when he thought about what he has done. He gave away his right of free will, to a man he’s only known for a few weeks now. For a moment Balin considered running away. It would be the one way to preserve his freedom. He was just about to go to the other direction and not come back when his thoughts turned over to Sir Egbert of all people. He ran as well but unlike Balin that was to preserve his own life. Something ever greater and of more importance of his freedom and Balin judged him for that end even killed him. Then Balin thought about the other people he killed. Who was he to end their life’s. Was what he did justice or just blind anger on his part? Did Balin even deserve to be free after all he did? There was no one around to answer that question to him. Maybe there was someone who could tell that Balin.

“You are here right?”

Out of the Shadow of a nearby house blew up the the weird little man like an inflatable balloon and he started to approach Balin. As he walked closer to Balin the world started to turn into the abyss again.

“I am not a dog that you can just call if you feel like company.”

“Yet, you still come.”

“That is because I am a professional, so what do you want?”

“Am I doing the right thing?”

“Is there a right thing to do?”

“What?”

“Is what I am doing the right thing? Am I following the bigger picture? Is there a reason why I am doing this? Balin listen to me. You aren’t the first one that I work with and you won’t be the last. There is no bigger picture, no end goal in life. At least not one that I am aware of. If there is one, then it’s being made by someone even higher then me. What matters is if you are comfortable with what you are doing. That is all I can say on that matter.”

“A higher being, like what? Are there even higher beings then you?”

Epidex sighed and answered.

“Maybe. Maybe there is a God out there who is truly omnipotent and has a plan for everyone and thing. I am just an entertainer. I wouldn’t know. Listen I am a busy man and I am not in the mood for deep philosophy.”

“So, you are saying you don’t know?”

“Yes, exactly that is what I said. Did I mess up fixing your ears or something? This is getting dumb, I’m leaving.”

And as fast as he came he disappeared and Balin was on the stairs of the house again. Even more confused then before he talked to Epidex. Concluding that this is too difficult for himself to find out, he just gave up and entered the house.

After waking up Balin waited patiently. Usually Bernhard would be here by the late morning hours but today he wasn’t here, so Balin kept waiting. As the morning turned into midday and then to evening Balin became worried, but he stayed in the apartment. He concluded that Bernhard wanted to give him a chance to escape and was testing his loyalty. Therefore, he didn’t even leave for a walk or to get fresh air. It would take until the day after that in the afternoon when Bernhard reappeared.

“You are still here as expected. Good. Please come with me! I have to take you somewhere.”

“Of course, Mater.”

Balin made a respectful bow but Bernhard stopped him halfway through.

“Don’t do that with me in private. Keep treating me like normal. I don’t want things to get too uncomfortable between us.”

They were on a busy street when Balin asked where they were going Bernhard explained.

“We still have to mark you as my property. We have to do this as part to make your enslavement official.”

Balin put his hand onto and massaged his throat. He knew that there were two popular places on the slave’s body to mark him as property. There was the throat and the cheek. Two obvious places that could be seen immediately on the person’s body and would be difficult to hide. Then there were two popular types or marking themselves. The tattoo and the burn mark. The burning mark was mainly given to enslaved captured enemy combatants while the former was more common for day to day use. Both were very humiliating. Especially since as a knight Balin should have kept his face in peak condition. As was told by tradition. The great knight only had markings of battle and honor and no others. Bernhard noticed Balin’s uncomfortableness.

“Why are you so nervous?”

“It’s just… I used to be a squire. And yeah…”

That was when it hit Bernhard.

“Oh right. The whole purity for god thing. Must be uncomfortable. I am sorry, but we must make this official. Don’t make me order you to do this.”

“It’s ok. I’ll do it. I’ll get over it.”

And the two fell into a short silence as they went their way. It took Balin a moment until he restarted the conversation.

“Where are we going to put the mark? I just want to prepare myself.”

“You are not a normal slave. You are entering my service as a combat slave and out of your free will. So, I don’t think making it too obvious on your face or throat should be the way of going about this. I didn’t think about yet. Give me until we are at the tattooing place.”

“So, I am getting a tattoo. Alright. This might hurt less than the burn mark.”

“It’s also cheaper. Like this I won’t need to get a branding iron made with my family’s insignia.”

So, the duo went to their destination. Balin anxious about his tattoo while Bernhard was thinking of how to give Balin a marking that wouldn’t hurt his pride too much. Bernhard led Balin to his house where a burly man with a polished wooden earing was waiting in the guest room drinking tea. When Bernhard entered, he stood up and grabbed Bernhard by the shoulders and shook his hand.

“Commander, it’s so nice to see you again. How have you been. It’s been ages.”

“Mostly great Al. How were you?”

“Good as well. How long has it been like two years? Haven’t heard from you since you got married. Next thing I know you’ve sent your maid requesting my craft.”

“Yeah, I need to get a slave marked. And I know you knew how to do it.”

“A slave? Didn’t expect you to take one. Don’t your people usually someone for this type of thing?”

“Usually we would but this one is kind of special. So, I hoped that you could do this for me.”

“Commander listen, I love you but if you want me to mark some illegal people I have to decline. I have a girl and I promised her father that I would stay away from shady things. I can’t risk losing her.”

“Don’t worry this is all absolutely legal. Oh right. This is my friend Alfred. We go way back. We served together. And this is Balin. He is a friend of mine.”

Balin held his gloved right hand at the man to greet him as well. Alfred shook the hand wildly.

“My pleasure.”

“Mine as well.”

“So, Commander where is that slave that you need inked.”

Bernhard just pointed at Balin as said.

“I need him marked as a combat slave. Think you can do it?”

“I am not too experienced with marking slaves, but I imagined a slave looking a bit more run down. Are you sure that he is the right guy?”

“It’s a long story and I don’t want too explain it to you right now. Just know that we both talked this through and are ok with it.”

“Alright, but before I do this you should know that I won’t do this for free.”

“Don’t worry, I will pay you for your services.”

“Where do you want the mark to be?”

“Mark him around his right ear!”

“Alright. But I think he will have to shave that part of his head beforehand. I can’t work if he has so much hair there. Do you mind shaving it while I set up? Also do you mind if I set myself up in your salon? I do need some space to do this.”

“Of course, do as you please, Balin please come with me! We can use my razor upstairs.”

It took the duo a few minutes and multiple attempts and help from Tacey to shave all the hair of that part of the head off. As they discovered there were some almost scar like pieces of the earth like material on Balin’s head that they weren’t aware of. Bernhard mumbled something about this hopefully not being a problem as they continued. When looking at himself in a mirror Balin thought he looked dumb but didn’t say anything. Bernhard on the other hand snickered at how uneven Balin’s head looked. As the two men retuned downstairs they found Alfred already set up.

“For a man of your status this room does look kind of empty. Is this in style with your noble types these days?”

“No, there was an incident and some of my stuff broke as a result. Look can we come back to the task at hand?”

“No reason to be rude. Alright, please Balin lay down so that the target area faces face up. And if you don’t mind Bernhard, could you please hold his head? Some people start moving and that tends to mess up my work. By the way, this is going to hurt. So please bite on this until I am done!”

He handed Balin a polished piece of wood, while Balin laid down in the ordered position. Balin bit into the wood, that did disgustingly taste like polish, and Bernhard held him down.

After some painful minutes of forcing the ink under Balin’s skin the work was done. Despite Balin still feeling the pain of the process Alfred ensured him that this was totally normal and should go away in a few days, if they treat it right. When they came talking about payment Bernhard payed in addition to the original fee an additional amount to silence Alfred about the weird scar tissue. As the tattoo artist left Balin asked Bernhard.

“Why did you tell him to mark me around my ear, if hair grows back it will be difficult to see?”

“You aren’t a normal slave to me. And I think that you should keep at least that little dignity after everything that happened. That reminds me. Do you want to know how it looks? Alfred left behind a little sheet where he painted the tattoo on before he did it for real. Here I’ll show it too you.”

Bernhard pulled out a small piece of paper with a drawing on it. The drawing consistent out of three parts. Above in the left there was a stylish B.X, which stood for Bernhard Xavier. In the middle there was a shield like form with a simplistic depiction of a sword in the middle and three lines, splitting the uncolored parts of the shield to the outline of the shield. Representing Bernhard’s title as the Hero of three front. And in the lower right corner was a simple capital S, which stood for slave.