Priceless managed a very weak smile, it was fragile, it was delicate, it was almost nonexistent, but the tiniest bit of the corners of her lips moved so slightly that only the sharp golden eyes of the elven priestess could have caught it.

“Then… as my mistress says, I am Priceless.” She whispered as a tiny spark lit beneath her breast under the twin orbs of Nua’s golden sunlike eyes. “How can I serve you… mistress?” Priceless asked, her eyes not drifting away from the one who named her.

“For starters, remind yourself of your new name for a while, can’t have you forgetting it now, can we?” She touched Priceless’s nose with the gloved left hand, tapping it lightly with her forefinger.

“I, no, no we can’t, Priceless obeys.” She let out the ghost of a smile as Nua stood up and stretched out.

“I am Priceless…” The brown haired girl formerly named ‘Zero’ repeated quietly.

“What… just happened here?” Kaiji wondered as she watched the strange transition in both her mistress, and her fellow slave.

But then as she turned away from ‘Priceless’ the moment was gone and the cold, cruel expression with unblinking eyes that drilled into her soul and found it to be of marginally greater worth than an ant.

“You,” Nua said as she took one of the keys out from around her neck, “Put your hands out.”

Kaiji obeyed, stiffly, but obediently, she stood with her feet spread apart trying not to be bothered by her nakedness but not much succeeding, conscious as she was of the rise and fall of her breasts with every anxious breath under the eyes of her increasingly strange… and therefore dangerous, mistress.

Her wrists turned up to expose the lock. Nua stabbed the key aggressively into the hole and twisted it sharply, then repeated the gesture, drawing a flinch from Kaiji who sensed the sudden rise of wrath in her owner.

‘Chains, I hate these things...’ Nua fumed and gritted her teeth as she jammed the key into the lock with sharp contempt.

As soon as they were open, Nua took the chains away and tossed them into a distant corner of the room. She looked over at where they fell with a thunk against the wall, and a loud rattle when they hit the floor, then took Kaiji’s jaw in her left hand.

“Do not mistake this for weakness in me.” Nua leaned in, intimately close save for the bars between them.

‘Her breath… her breath isn’t hot, why isn’t her breath hot, it’s cold, cold like, no, not winter… like death…’ Kaiji felt the stinging hold on her cheek, the feeling of pressure, but pressure heavily restrained. She could only stare into eyes of stone so cold they might as well have been ripped from the tundra, all she could do, was listen.

“They told me you were a discipline problem, I saw you call for their deaths, I have no doubt that you’re no stranger to killing. So if you ever want to challenge me, do it with the pride of the free, not the cowardly skulking of a rat. Your chains come off for the sake of your oath to my god. Break that oath and go for my back, and you will be buried on yours. Keep your loyalty, keep your oath, and you will do better than merely living. Do we understand each other?”

When Nua asked the question, she released her grip and held her palm out and up, Kaiji took Nua’s wrist and hand atop hers, cradling it, and kissed the center. ‘This hand… it doesn’t feel right… mysteries are threats. I must know more.’ Kaiji thought behind closed eyes as she kissed the palm that could bring the whip to bear at a whim.

Kaiji Najin raised her face from the palm but did not rise to look at her mistress as an equal, instead she simply tilted her head back while cradling the glove that concealed the mystery. “I made my oath, and I will keep it, I always keep my word, I failed the Prince of my city, but I kept my vow to him, even knowing it would see me reduced to nothing. I will keep my oath to the mistress that saved my life from the worst of deaths…”

It proved the right thing to say, she watched as her mistress visibly relaxed, and the cage was unlocked.

The cage creaked open and Nua stepped aside to allow Kaiji to exit.

Nua looked her up and down, her breathing had notably become more anxious.

‘Damn, she’s never felt this before, well… she’ll get used to it, or won’t, I don’t have to keep this up forever.’ Nua mused as she openly said, “Are you well, you seem to have started shaking as soon as you left the cage? I paid a great deal for you, if you’re ill, you must tell me.”

The world around Kaiji suddenly seemed unbelievably massive, even for being a mere single room, her heart pounded, her senses went into overdrive, the scent of her owner’s skin, the sound of the creaking cage door as it closed behind her instead of in front of her, sweat sprang to her skin and she shut her eyes so as not to even see the wall of the room that felt suddenly far away.

“I, no mistress it’s… I have just been in that cage since my capture and… I’ve seen bad things happen to slaves who are out of their cages. I guess, I guess it just felt…” She bit her lower lip and looked down as shame washed over her.

“Safe?” Nua asked and stepped away from her slave and turned away.

Kaiji’s eyes popped open as if her face had been struck, and solid red eyes looked at her mistresses retreating back, staring uncomprehendingly at the black armor that covered the flesh beneath.

“Yes… mistress.” Kaiji replied.

“Don’t get used to it.” Nua warned her cryptically and tugged the red rope on the wall and went where Priceless was still repeating her new name.

“I am Priceless. I am Priceless. I am Priceless.” The woman repeated on a loop, not pausing as Nua reached in, took her wrists, and turned them over one by one. She unlocked them, and they fell away with the last small ‘click’ noise of the cheap metal key. Nua caught the chains in her left hand, and closed her hand over the iron under Priceless’s own eyes, and squeezed. The iron bent beneath her gloved hand, prompting wide and wild eyes to go back and forth from the metal that bent, to the mistress herself.

The chains rattled and clinked as they struck the bars of the cage and swayed to clink against each other. Nua cast them behind her without looking.

“I am Priceless. I am Priceless. I am Priceless.” It went on, her words an unbroken mantra as she made the name her own, though she could not keep her eyes from following the arc of flying metal as it hit the corner of the wall and joined Kaiji’s own in a rejected heap.

Nua held her left and right in between the bars and kept her hands turned up. “Her, I warned. But I do not need to warn you, do I, Priceless?” Nua asked with a small, gentle, rhetorical tone.

The small brown haired girl cupped her mistresses crushingly powerful left hand in her own, lowered her face, and kissed her palm. “No mistress. You hold my life,” she lifted her head, cupped the right hand, and kissed the right palm, “and my loyalty. My name is Priceless. And Priceless belongs to you. I will obey.”

Nua gave the girl an indulgent smile and patted her head as one would a pet. “Good, I know you will. I am going to set you to attending Kaiji, learn what she has to teach you. Focus on reading and writing, but also mathematics, and anything else. You nibbled at scraps of knowledge for your whole life, now if you want to be useful to me, you must gorge yourself on everything presented to you. You do want to be useful to me, don’t you?”

“Yes, Mistress. I want to be useful.” She lowered her head differentially and accepted a pain free touch with relief.

A knock at the door interrupted further reverie, prompting Nua to look over to it. Solution still napped, or, more likely, ‘She’s pretending to because this bores her to tears and she just wants to get this out of the way so she can hurt someone. Ahhh Teacher, you can be a bit melodramatic about these things.’ Nua thought and kept her laugh to herself.

“Kaiji, answer it.” Nua ordered while she stood up and stuck the key into the lock holding Priceless’s cage secure.

The cage opened with a small ugly scraping noise of old metal on old metal, but it opened, and Priceless stood there as Nua moved out of the way.

“You may exit.” Nua instructed her, suppressing a swelling pity and a roll of her eyes at the same moment.

The door opened, and Nua caught sight of Karlo out of the corner of her eye. He was blushing a deep red as the naked Kaiji stood at the entryway.

“M-My Lady, ah, you summoned me?” He asked, ‘She’s not, this isn’t going to be one of those perverted games the rich sometimes make servants play… Lady Kaiji was kind to me… I don’t want to shame her…’ The thought rushed through his mind, only to be abruptly squashed.

“Yes, I ordered a tailor to see to the measurement of my property, yet I have had no word of them.” Nua’s statement carried the air of a question, and with a deep sense of relief, Karlo had an answer.

“My Lady,” he bowed low, “The tailor arrived and has been measuring the ones in the stables, should I have her come here for… them, now?” He asked, his eyes lingering on Kaiji’s who had moved behind her mistress to protect the remnants of her modesty, and lowered her face in deference to the free man.

Nua raised an eyebrow. ‘That’s interesting, he knows her, that bears questioning… but it can wait. Making her answer the door was… distasteful enough. But I can’t risk breaking character.’

“Yes, send them here immediately.” She instructed in a perfunctory manner, but he didn’t back away. Sweat sprang on his brow as he struggled for words.

“Th-The rest of the slaves were fed and bathed already as well.” He added to his report, and hesitated, ‘Beg her to be kind to Lady Kaiji… go to your knees, beg her not to be cruel, not to hurt her… go on… be a man!’ He commanded himself as the silence stretched out. But he said nothing. His lips moved like a fish, opening and closing, but nothing came out.

“Is there… more?” Nua asked expectantly with a roll of her left hand at the wrist.

“N-No My Lady.” He answered, slowly straightening up, but unable to meet her eyes.

“Then see to it, also ensure they’re fed a meal when the sun is high in the sky. Scrap package, but add some fresh bread, and nothing moldy, tell them to bill my room. I’ll be displeased if new stock gets sick, and send up enough for these two as well.” Nua instructed swiftly, and then closed the door.

When it closed, Nua rolled her eyes and went over to where Solution was lying in the bed… taking up as much of it as possible. “Teacher, really? You’re just going to lie there pretending to be asleep until we leave?”

Her twisted grin formed on her face but she did not open her eyes, her hands folded one over the other and rested on her belly. “Till you find a reason for me not to be bored, I have no reason to talk to them. They’re your pets. Your responsibility. Now if you let me have a taste, My Lady…” Solution giggled from where she lay.

Nua flung up her arms and looked to the sky as if to beseech the heavens for aid in coping with a stubborn servant, then looked over to where the slaves stood...inching themselves backwards.

“Relax,” Nua said as she placed herself bodily between Solution and the two slaves, “She won’t eat you… without my permission. As long as you are loyal, you are safe from my Teacher.”

Priceless flattened herself against the wall, Kaiji however, closed her eyes. ‘How… interesting.’ She thought with the rational part of her mind as her new owner revealed a tiny bit more of herself, albeit unintentionally.

Little time for pondering the matter was had however, as their mistress verbally sparred with her apparent teacher and bodyguard until another knock came to the door.

Nua looked to the two women, “Kai…” Nua began, to say, only for Priceless to shot from the wall like an arrow from a drawn bow and rush to the door.

“Mistress,” she said without evident care for her lack of dress, “the tailor.”

“Enter.” Nua replied imperiously, and a young orc woman wearing fine silks custom tailored to fit to her body took several steps within, brushing past the slave who opened the door and ignoring the demon-elf, she bowed to the mistress of the room.

“Athein, best seamstress and tailor in Pas’en at your service My Lady.” She bowed politely.

“Captain Nua Calen Aiwenor.” Nua answered in turn and gestured to the two exposed bodies. “They need clothing suitable for accompanying someone of my stature. If you ask me how much I’m willing to spend, I will be offended. Just make it, and it must be suitable for travel as well as rough conditions as well as all weather.”

“How long will it take you to measure and make it?” Nua asked, “I’d rather not be too long.”

Athein pursed her lips and began to tap her fingers on the small polished dark wood case that carried the tools of her trade. Athein’s voice went a slight octave higher, than the typical deeper voice of orcs, and her dark hair all but bristled with excitement at the indifference toward cost. “A month if you want me to do them plus all your other slaves in the same quality, but two or three days if you want me to do only them and accept my staff doing common quality work on the rest of your stock.”

“That’ll be fine, have your staff fashion military grade undergarments, and off combat clothing, peasant style is sufficient, but standardized, with the military material suitable to wear under armor, I’ll also need military grade boots and gloves for all twenty five sets of them. How long?” Nua rattled out the orders and waited while Athein yanked out a document and began scribbling numbers.

“A week for all of them.” She replied after a moment.

Nua shook her head. “Not good enough. Hire extra staff, I want them done in three days or I’ll hire a competitor for half.”

Athein’s green tinted lips opened and closed at the abrupt and merciless tone.

“B-” She started to assert.

“I already mentioned my thoughts on cost, didn’t I?” Nua folded her arms in front of her chest and began to glare.

“Y-Yes, your thoughts on that are clear, it will be done. Three days from now, we will deliver them all to you. Does My Lady have a color scheme in mind?” Athein asked as she held her quill taut, the pressure of her fingers tight enough that even her calloused fingertips ached.

“Black and red, with a gray skull emblazoned over the heart.” Nua answered abruptly.

“Consider it done, my neighbor is a cobbler, I’ll have him handle the boots, all else, will be mine and my staff in action.” Athein’s green eyes sparkled as she began mentally counting out the coin. The tusks that thrust out from her jaws shook a little and the whites of her eyes widened ever so slightly.

“Good.” Nua answered flatly and jerked her thumb toward the two women. “Get my stock measured and get started.” Nua said and rang the bell again for her chosen attendant.

“Oh and one more thing?” Nua said as the rope bobbed up and down where she’d pulled it.

“My Lady?” Athein asked as Kaiji stepped forward, passively, raising her arms and opening her thighs to be fitted.

“The slaves out there came with no clothing, winter rains have not gone yet, I can’t have my investment wasted, and… I very much doubt the hotel would be willing to extend some of their blankets, do you have some suitable for horses? I can’t have my stock getting sick while waiting to be put to use.” Nua said with a tiny frown and her eyes narrowed with displeasure.

‘OK that’s cold, even for Pas’en, that’s cold.’ Athein said as she felt the blue eyes bore into the back of her skull while she measured the demon-elf.

“Ah, well yes, I’ll, actually I’ll donate them to you as a bargain to entice future purchases, your first buy is so large, keeping the stock meant to wear it alive and free from sickness is the least I can do.” Athein replied, looking down longer than she needed to when she lifted the demon-elf’s bare foot and placed it on a piece of paper. She outlined the shape of the foot as slowly as she could to avoid any chance of catching her patron’s eye.

“Good of you.” Nua responded in a noncommittal voice as a knock came at the door.

“Enter.” She said, and Karlo opened the door, entered, closed it, and bowed very deeply, yanking his eyes down away from Lady Kaiji’s bare breasts.

“My Lady, I come at your call.” Karlo said, stiff and formal. ‘Keep your calm, if you challenge her in any way in front of others, it can only hurt Lady Kaiji, and yourself. Wait until she’s alone, then… maybe I can help her.’

“Of course you do.” Nua said and reached into the coin purse at her side. “I need you to do something for me.” She held her hand out a few inches above his own and tilted it over, from it spilled a handful of gold coins that she didn’t bother counting.

Athein caught the pale reflection of the act in the window, and began to work faster, finishing the demon-elf slave and gesturing for the human to approach. Neither of them missed the indifferent display of wealth either, and traded glances of awe that gave them further common ground.

“Take these, go to the best blacksmith in the city, tell them I need twenty five suits of armor, the best they can make, full plate, with shields, and short swords. If this isn’t enough… no, that would be unacceptable.” She muttered at the last and jerked her hand into the coin purse again and drew it out, “Here, take this too. When you’re done, go to the best Alchemy shop in the city and get a list of available potions and an order form. Then to the mages guild and get me the list of available equipment enchantments and an order form. Then after that, go to the adventurers guild and find… wait, what is the highest rank you use for adventurers here in this part of the world?”

Nua’s rapidfire instructions finally stopped, and Karlo answered with a dumbfounded face, “Ah, Headgrade.”

“Headmen… right, you rate your adventurers by body placement from foot to head…” Nua muttered as the memory returned. “Yes, hire two Headmen grade adventurers, tell them to meet me here for a short term contract, and send the bill to my room, I don’t need the quote. Also order twenty seven full military kits for delivery here in three days. If anyone refuses to send the bill, come to me for money, oh… and one more small thing.” Nua said as she saw the exhaustion already starting to form on the poor young man’s face, sweat running down his face as he just contemplated the amount of work to be done.

“My Lady?” He asked in a slightly squeaky voice.

“On your way out, make sure I have an early dinner table reservation, about fifteen feet from the table marked, ‘reserved’. Again, price doesn’t matter. Make it happen, do you understand?” Nua placed her right hand on his shoulder and held his face with hers.

“I’m trusting you with a lot, Karlo, can you handle it?” She asked the freckle faced young man, his slightly apple shaped face flushed briefly, but he nodded with the powerful confidence of a brash youth.

“Yes, My Lady!” He replied louder than he had to, his entire body stiffened at her touch, and when she released her hand from his shoulder, he bowed, and scurried off as fast as his legs could carry him.

“This… is going to be a ‘very’ productive day, my dear Teacher.” Nua said as she went back deeper into the room and saw the wide, awestruck eyes of her slaves, and a deeply bowing Athein.

Nobody moved, until Solution started to laugh from her spot on the bed.