Mash laid in a bed that didn’t really feel comfortable. It wasn’t a bad room or anything. The inn was more luxurious than he was used to, but it wasn’t his unfamiliarity that bothered him. It was the city. The kingdom itself haunted him. Unsurprisingly, no one was really up for drinks by the time they got to the inn. Luke still looked like he wanted to kill someone, and Trek and Kerik were both too depressed to really want to share a drink. If the group wanted to, the guards promised to do it tomorrow. Feeling a little guilty about the whole situation, Mash agreed to buy the guards drinks. The rest of the group didn’t disagree.

Mash had his eyes closed, but it was pointless with his domain. The room wasn’t that big, so he could easily see the whole thing from the bed. There was a single long carpet that led from the door to the bed. Other than that, there was a table with two chairs, and a chest rested at the foot of the bed. The only strange thing about the room was the fact that the bed used silk for its sheets. Mash didn’t care for the luxury, but the city never got cold so cotton would make people sweat in their sleep. Silk was just light enough that the inn could get by without using cooling runes. Mash still had lowered the temperature of his room by several degrees.

He gave up on trying to sleep. The seasons weren’t able to affect him, but his blood still felt like it was hot. The very idea of slavery being so openly accepted infuriated him. Mash remembered how awful it had felt to have one class choice taken from him. He couldn’t even imagine what it felt like for the enslaved people here. They would see the options but not be able to choose for themselves. Every single time, it would be the same. The options would be there, but they would be twisted to the one that kept them as a slave.

The temperature in the room fell considerably as he tried to cool himself down. It didn’t work. Mash swung his feet to the side and sat up as he noticed someone standing in front of his door. He hadn’t noticed their approach, but he wouldn’t if she had teleported there. The door wasn’t locked, so he just called out to her.

“Doors unlocked, What’s wrong?”

The door creaked as it swung open. The whole inn was made of heavy magically reinforced stone, and the doors would scrape against the floors whenever they were moved. Jill walked in, grunting a little in the effort of opening the door. She had a very baggy set of pajamas on. The material was obviously thin, but it still made him feel hot. If he hadn’t changed the temperature, he probably would’ve gone shirtless.

“You don’t lock it? What if someone tried to? Actually nevermind, it’s not like anyone could steal from you with how your items work. And a door wouldn’t stop someone trying to break in for something else.”

Mash nodded. He had come to the same conclusion and had gotten into the habit of leaving his doors unlocked. It was probably a bad habit, but Priscilla didn’t really sleep, and she had full access to his domain as well. She would easily be able to warn him of anything.

“Yeah, can’t find a reason to care. So, why are you here?”

Jill shrugged. Then she shivered as she stepped into the space that he had been cooling.

“It’s cold. Right, I forgot that you could do that. You know what, I think I’m just going to sleep here. This is much better than my room.”

Mash rolled his eyes.

“Don’t care, not giving up the bed.”

She waved away his words.

“No problem. Those beds are terrible. I’d rather just use my sleeping bag so long as you can keep it cold the whole night.”

That was actually a good idea. Mash bunched up the silk sheets and tossed them to a corner of the room. He took out his own more comfortable bedroll and laid it on the bed. Yeah, that was a lot better than earlier. Jill had pushed the tables to the side and rolled her own sleeping bag out on the ground.

“Oh, and can you make it a bit warmer?”

Mash nodded and adjusted the temperature to Jill’s request. The temperature was definitely on the border of what was considered comfortable.

“I really needed to cool down and that helped me calm down a little. I still feel like punching someone though.”

“I think everyone feels like that. Luke especially. I don’t think he’s ever been that callous before. Speaking of, we should probably invite the others over too. I don’t think they like the beds either.”

Jill spoke while crawling into her bed. He didn’t think she planned on getting the others herself, so he told Priscilla to send a message to the others. The room soon went from uncomfortably empty to uncomfortably crowded. Mash was free on his bed, but the floor was filled with the others. He couldn’t get to the door without stepping on one of them now. Although, he didn’t feel like he would get up again.

They couldn’t fall asleep though. Even though they were tired, none of them could really calm down enough to asleep. Luke didn’t even try. He just moved to a sitting position and asked Mash if he could make it even colder around him. It was easy enough, as Mash had passed the task of temperature control to Priscilla. She was a lot better at manipulating magic and didn’t struggle with making adjustments like that. The temperature around him was significantly lower than that around the others, even after he dropped it for Luke. An hour later they were all still awake.

“What’s the plan? Do we leave as soon as possible, or try and do something stupid? I do consider staying a stupid decision.”

Red spoke into the silent room.

“What can we even do?”

Luke whispered the words with little actual hope in them.

“I think we can actually do a good bit. Though it could be dangerous.”

Mash shrugged. What did they do that wasn’t dangerous? Then he realized he was the only one that could see the gesture and voiced his acceptance.

“That’s not really new.”

The rest of the night went by as they talked. Red had some suggestions for the things they could do in the city. They kept talking into the early morning and only really went to sleep after forming something of a plan. It was rare for them to act with such a well-thought-out plan, but now Mash had something to do tomorrow.

Mash woke up early. He always woke up kind of early, but Red had given him a task for the morning, so he had gotten up well before the others. He couldn’t really tell exactly what time of day it was though. The city was always lit up by the artificial sun that hung near the top of the mountain. His internal clock had been mostly accurate ever since he bonded with Priscilla. Mash got ready quickly and didn’t bother eating at the inn. He had passed several interesting stores last night and wanted to eat from one of them. He vaguely remembered someplace that sold oddly shaped cakes.

Around an hour or two later, Mash left the shop with a small box of ten cakes. They were small, around the size of his palm but they were good. A thick syrup of some kind had been frozen around the outside of each cake. It was essentially just melted sugar. Although things didn’t need to be complex to be delicious. He walked down the street, popping a whole cake in his mouth casually. These weren’t so big that the gesture drew any eyes. His face still had to adjust a little, but it wasn’t noticeable. The streets were significantly more crowded in the morning. Even the widest street felt a little restricted with the constant flow of people within.

The crowded streets didn’t affect him though. Although he did get odd looks from the occasional person. He guessed it was because he didn’t have any jewels mixed with his hair. Every single adult, and even some children, had at least one jewel tied into their hair. The wealth represented here was ridiculous. He would’ve expected bandits, but the location was probably enough of a protection. He hadn’t seen any real entrances outside of the one he had taken either. The city was definitely more like a fort.

[We are here, do you want to switch now?]

Priscilla’s message drew his attention away from the food. He looked down the street and saw the park peaking over the surrounding buildings. The Slavery, as it was called, was his objective. He felt his face contort slightly. It was hard to hide his disgust, but that was what Priscilla would do. He nodded, and let Priscilla take control of his body. She instantly relaxed his muscles to make his walk return to the casual stroll he had been moving with earlier. The way Priscilla moved his body was like that of a golem, but that made her job easier here. She had to control each muscle manually and could easily manage his tone and expression. Mash took on the role of a passenger, although he did need to maintain the connection. He had to consciously relinquish control to her for this to work. She couldn’t actually stop him from reclaiming control of his body, so this became a game of restraint for him. The plan demanded he managed.

Priscilla walked up to the building, and they both felt something pass over them. An analysis barrier probably. Few places bothered with things like that. They were known to be too general to produce anything really valuable. And this was no exception. It didn’t even seem to react to his unusual race or constitution. What was it used for then? He didn’t know but didn’t really care either.

A woman wearing a black and white uniform approached. It was a long robe that had a checkered pattern on it. Black and white squares covered it entirely. The robe was thin and hung on her curves. It was probably meant to do that. She had bright blue eyes. Her hair was tied back into a long ponytail that hand down to her waist. It was strangely blue too, and it sparkled almost as if it was made of sapphires. No, that wasn’t right. It didn’t have the same cheapness as the gems he had seen earlier. It was closer to a glittering piece of ice than a gem. The woman was probably part dwarf. As she had a more human build but was a good foot shorter than Mash despite probably being a few years older than him. Not that she seemed particularly old.

“Hello, young master. What can the Slavery do for you today?”

“I am new to the city and was curious to see…well everything. Maybe find something interesting?”

Priscilla was doing a really good job at impersonating him. She even paused and stressed things like he did. She moved his hands in gestures that she couldn’t make with her own body. This was definitely for the best. Even now he wanted to take control and just scream at everyone about how stupid this all was. Instead, Priscilla produced a very different response from his mouth.

“I have recently come to a lot of gold. And could see the utility of a servant.”

Priscilla wanted to say slave, but Mash stopped that. Even if this was all an act, he couldn’t bring himself to do that. Using the word like that, felt wrong. The lady smiled sweetly, and Mash noticed just how beautiful she was. It was uncanny like the hostess from the auction had been.

“Of course! Please, follow me. There are several rooms where we can sit and talk.”

Priscilla nodded and followed as the woman took the lead. Mash realized he hadn’t properly introduced himself and told Priscilla to do it.

[It would be out of character. You typically give your name later in the conversation.]

Was that true? Mash didn’t really feel like it was. Then he thought about it again and realized there was some truth to that. The lady led them to one of many rooms. She had taken a deliberately long path to let him look around the building. It was clearly designed to show off its products. The walls were unadorned, and he didn’t notice any flashy sculptures either. The ground was made of a single enormous blue crystal. The walls had a bunch of gems embedded into them. They reflected the light illuminating the room in a rainbow of colors. That only made the people stand out even more. Many men and women walked around wearing the same robe as the woman who was leading him. He only really realized that they were all slaves when he noticed that none of them had gems in their hair.