Bracer took out the small hand sized instrument from his pocket as soon as they crossed the border. He brought it to his lips, and blew. The sound of what could only be described as a demon’s cry came from the whistle like device, and he repeated it three times.

He didn’t have to wait long for the result, with the forest behind him and the open field everywhere else, he was clearly visible to any creature who could see in the dark, which included most of the Tlalmokan beastmen. “You’re late.” A lionman said when he came over the hill. He was eight feet tall and broad as two humans, with thick muscled arms beneath golden fur, a thick mane on his head, and a lashing tail behind him of brown fur that matched his mane. He had what could have been described as human hands, but tipped with razor sharp claws, and golden eyes that saw into the darkness as people did into the light.

Bracer remained relaxed in body, loose, as if meeting an old friend instead of a dangerous predator of humanity. “So are you, and unlike you, I had to drag a bunch of reluctant meat along.” Bracer replied with his eyes sharp and watchful as he scanned the way in front of himself despite the easy posture.

“Maybe you should add yourself to the stock to compensate me.” The lionman growled as he looked down at the much smaller human that stood with folded arms a few yards away.

“Cut off your own arm if you want to add to the pile, or come over here and try to add me in person.” Bracer laughed at the lionman as he taunted him, “I’ve killed a lot more beastmen, than you’ve eaten of humans, don’t think you’re special. I’m special, you… are coin wrapped in fur.” Bracer retorted and caressed his sword.

The growl continued, but the lionman made no move, it was surrender enough. “I thought not, besides, you can’t replace me, there are only what, maybe three smuggler outfits out there? So cut with the bluster and make with the coin. I got a good haul, Tlizin. More than you asked for in fact. I even brought them to you ‘clean’ this time.”

Tlizin reached for his pouch and held it up, “Bring them on out, Bracer.”

Bracer turned, stuck his fingers into his mouth, and blew, a long clear whistle echoed into the woods where his bandits waited, guarding their precious cargo.

Wails went up, the sound of struggling as a few of the peasants desperately fought back, finding their courage far too late, thuds and screams went up for just a brief few moments, and then silence, save for weeping and the sound of people crashing through the underbrush.

The bandits pulled the smaller number of weakened and unconscious peasants out of the woods in a single long chain. Some were still tugging by the securing point that held them at the wrists, but it did no good.

Over the hill, small wagons began to appear, these were walled and had a small iron gate over the back that would allow prisoners to be thrown in and secured, and beside the wagon walked a dozen beastmen. Hyenamen, serpentinas, bearmen, and a few lionmen, they towered over the small humans and were heavily armed and armored. With large breastplates and spears. The bandits stepped away, their courage was already faltering, but Bracer waved to them all like old friends.

“Here’s your load, count them out.” He said enthusiastically, which Tlizin did, putting the coins into a smaller empty pouch as the captives were one by one identified by their age and sex to determine price.

“No! NO! Not my daughter! Not my daughter!” A voice familiar to Bracer screamed in despair. He chuckled and shook his head.

“She has an attitude,” Bracer said with annoyance, “said some very rude things about your god-emperor.” He lied easily, but it was enough to draw a furious growl from the lionman merchant as he dropped coins into the pouch.

“She and her offspring will suffer longest for that, then. I have added a ten silver bonus for telling me of her blasphemy.” Tlizin growled out and tossed the pouch in front of him through the darkness. Bracer snatched the pouch out of the air with a boyish grin.

“Thanks again, Tlizin, pleasure doing business with you.” Bracer replied as he put it away.

The lionman stroked his mane and laughed, “I’m sure it is, but word has reached me that Komestra has fallen, a large offering is going to come to the Empire as a result.”

“Five thousand heads, from what I hear. Maybe more.” Bracer replied with an affirmative nod.

“Any chance the Komestran Prince was captured, or did he die?” Tlizin inquired hopefully, his tall, rigid body leaned forward intensely.

Bracer shrugged, “Most of the time, Princes die with their cities, but I haven’t heard of his head being on a pike at all. Who knows? If he did live though, I can guess the route he’d be sent through.”

“Can you?” Tlizin asked with sudden respect for the already uncommonly dangerous human.

“Sure, I was an adamantite ranked adventurer once. With high value persons, the very measures used to ensure their safety, also make their transport and travel predictable. I take it you want that tribute to come from ‘you’ and not someone else?”

Tlizin could not smile, but his mouth closed and his lips stretched out, “Yes, the tribute of a fallen prince, delivered alive to the God-Emperor’s table? My enterprise would surely grow with his favor.”

“And how much will my purse grow along with it?” Bracer asked with an interested forward lean of his own as the last slave was loaded and the sound of a lock ‘clicking’ sealed the fate of the prisoners. The wailing never stopped, but he never listened to it in the first place. “I was planning on going south after another raid, but… for a large enough sum I could be persuaded to stick around. At the very least I can use my contacts to determine if he’s alive or not and probably when he’s shipped.”

“Enough to buy a lordship in any city in the east. But… you think you can succeed?” Tlizin asked, drawing his golden fur covered hands together and rubbing them with greed that a human merchant might have done just as naturally.

“I know I can find out if he’s alive, and if he’s alive, I guarantee he’ll be at Pas’en. And if he’s at Pas’en, I can promise he’ll be a tribute. And if he’s to be a tribute, they’ll take him to the main holding route on the border where the big tributes always go. And if they’re going to take him there, there are only two routes suitable for large numbers, and only one of those in the rainy season.” Bracer said as he looked at the sky, rain was already starting to fall, as if the heavens themselves declared him to be right. “And if he’s ‘special’ which he would be, he’ll be the last to be handed over as the ‘best for last’ saying goes. Meaning that over a few days of tributing, his guard will get smaller, and smaller, and I can take him.”

Tlizin looked down at the human with surprise in his golden eyes, “You should have been born a beastman.”

“Well small human girls ‘are’ a delicacy to me, in a manner of speaking.” Bracer laughed at the joke, and thought Tilizin laughed, he was quite certain the lionman merchant had no idea what he meant.

“Don’t worry, I’ll reach out to the crime lords of Pas’en, in a day or two I’ll know for sure. If you don’t see me here at our next scheduled drop, it’s because I’ve gone to get you the real prize.”

“I look forward to it, Bracer.” Tlizin said, and turned about to return to his carts.

It was only an hour or two after the request was made, that two bronze collars were delivered to the room, and Nua stood behind her kneeling possessions. They were breathing hard as she stood between them, just a few inches back.

“This is… quite a knot.” She said flatly as she looked down at the tangled mess where leather strips came together at the back in an endless mass that reminded her of the strands of sauce covered food she’d seen heaped into a bowl and all tangled together.

“It is… a Gordine knot, named after the city of that name. They… use it on these, no slave can undo it without help, and since no sensible person will help a slave against the owner’s will… nobody can undo it but the one who owns the bearer.” Kaiji said succinctly and fell silent.

“I see.” Nua said as she looked down at the tangled mess. “Do not move an inch.” She said sharply, though her heart ached for the pair, they remained still and unmoving. Nua put her thumb to Priceless’s neck and forced her thumb beneath, and drew her knife. “Not an inch.” She reiterated forcefully, “This knife is sharp enough to cut you if you just look at it wrong.”

Priceless didn’t move or speak, she felt the cold touch of the blade, heard the sound of ripping, and then the leather collar fell down in front of her, laying on the floor before her eyes. She touched her neck, and began to breath harder as her heart began to beat as if she’d run a hard race.

She squeezed her eyes shut tight, and felt the soft leather interior of the bronze replacement closing around her neck.

‘Let her go! She has no collar! Let her go she’s free she’s free you evil bitch!’ Nua screamed at herself, but her body didn’t listen, she slowly brought it around Priceless’s neck, and then took the little latch, slid it through the joining position in the back, and closed it shut. One little click… and it was done.

Priceless touched the bronze, caressing the smoothness of it all, and she felt the right hand of her mistress stroke her head. “It’ll be alright, Priceless.” She heard the voice of the name giver behind her, and sat in awe.

‘I’ve never had such a high status collar before… never. The levy can’t touch me now. I’ll never be, long as I wear this, given over to the Tlalmok Empire. I have to work hard for her… I have to deserve this.’ Priceless resolved as she watched from the corner of her eye for how Kaiji would cope.

When Nua repeated her warning, Kaiji half expected to die, and half wished that she would. But another part, as she saw the leather fall to the floor, wanted to run. ‘You have no collar! You can run! Your magic is unlocked! Fight her! Defeat her and you can run away…’ The thought was crushed however, when two things happened. First, she saw the left hand, ‘What other magic that has… who knows, it’s useless, you can’t fight her. You can’t win, you failed your people and your Prince and if you tried this now you’ll just fail yourself and die!’ She cursed herself and her fear, and then recalled her mistress’s words, ‘You can have a use as her slave, you can… maybe, save some of your people! You can’t make everything right, but some of it! And… she did save your life, and you gave your oath to her, the stars loath oathbreakers.’ So her thoughts ran.

And under her breath as she heard the knife being put away at her owner’s side, she began to utter, “I am Kaiji the slave, property of Mistress Aiwenor.” Over and over on a loop, as she heard her mistress take up the other bronze collar, the one meant for her, and loop it around her neck.

“I am Kaiji the slave… property of Mistress Aiwenor…” She uttered once more, and heard the ‘click of the lock behind her, and with that click, she felt the death rattle of Lady Kaiji to her bones.

‘You’re never going to forgive yourself for what you just did.’ Nua thought to herself as she saw the way the two responded to the placement of the bronze around their throats, and the thought caused her to remember again the words of Raymond to the Demon of the West, and her response…

...Then her voice became tempered to the point of gentleness, "I am... truly sorry, but this is a consequence of their choices, and of yours. Maybe you'll get lucky and they'll surrender. But I doubt it, and if they don't, well, there will be no truce, there will be no withdrawal, and I will show no mercy." Neia answered calmly as Skana sat, troubled at her side.

Nua bit her lip, lost in her own thoughts.

"This will haunt you for the rest of your life..." Raymond whispered.

Neia looked at him from where she sat, then lowered her gaze to a little puddle that had started to form nearby, drops created ripples that bounded back and forth against bending strands of grass, and she wiped her face of the water that struck her. "It may be that you are right, but I will do it anyway. Then I will go east, and I will begin to strike your cities, your towns, your villages. Every hint of atrocity will be met with..."

"Atrocity?" Nua interjected, drawing Neia up short.

...She shook off the memory. ‘Yes, this will haunt me for the rest of my life, and like the Dark Savior… I did it anyway.’ Her own thoughts were brought up short as the pair waited for command, which she gave with her most imperious voice. “Go, look in the mirror, you two do look beautiful in bronze.” She tried to add a hint of the positive, but whether it worked or not, was hard to tell.

They stood and moved to the mirror, lifting their throats and touching the unbreakable proof of their status, emotions ran wild on their faces, but Priceless was quick to speak up. “We do look beautiful in it… thank you, Mistress Aiwenor.” She uttered quietly.

“You're welcome, but there’s no time for that, go, take up that list from the table and go over it.” Nua said as she took up her glass of wine and waited for the two to finish.

“Mistress, you want to buy Komestran land?” Kaiji asked with mixed emotions. ‘Everything that was mine...may one day belong to her, just… just like me.’

“I do. It ought to be relatively cheap right now, no?” Nua asked before she finished the cup and held it out.

Kaiji took up the bottle and with her eyes down in deference, she poured wine for the woman who was buying part of her broken city.

“Nothing dramatic, some farmland, enough for say… a village, to start with. A few hundred people. Also arrange for some homes to be built there, modest ones fit for peasants. I also want the names of everybody who buys any other land that used to be there, where they live, and so on.” Nua added quickly.

“Mistress, to do that, I’d need access to the records of the other cities in the coalition, when a city is destroyed, it is usually agreed on by the participants, just how the land will be divided up, and then sold accordingly.” Kaiji explained without being able to meet the cold blue eyes.

“It’s fine, just Pas’en’s portion for now, then. Also, as soon as Solution returns, I want you both to go out to the stables and take the names of every one of my warriors, and the names of every family or friend they know or think may still be alive. I’ll also want physical descriptions, special skills, and any other useful information. Kaiji, you’ll be in charge of Priceless, but that doesn’t mean to take your time and do nothing. Be back before the darkness comes.”

“It will be done, mistress.” Kaiji said in a grim monotone as she tried to process it all, her brain was working overtime, moving a mile a minute as she processed the instructions she’d been given and she wanted to wail in despair and cry with relief both at once. ‘She’s going to own us all! Everything I loved, everyone I tended… we’ll labor for my mistress until we die… she’ll buy our land, our bodies, our homes… and slave Kaiji will help her do it. Dread as she is… it is still the closest thing to hope we have.’

Her mistress seemed oblivious to her inner thoughts or the recognition that Kaiji had come to understand her intent, and set about writing out final instructions and counting out stacks of platinum coins.

“Use what you need to take care of yourselves, and if I should be killed…” Nua said, and set aside another letter which she quickly scribbled at great length, her quill flying over the paper until she’d finished. She then closed it up, took out a seal, dripped wax over the top, and closed it up. “Give this to Solution. She will see you given over to the Dark Savior. If that happens, don’t be afraid, the day I die will be the happiest day of your lives.” Nua said it without a trace of emotion in her voice, and without looking at them again.

“And… if Lady Solution is killed?” Priceless asked hesitantly.

Nua immediately smiled, and though she tried to restrain it, the smile grew until it turned into an uproarious laugh and she started slapping the table as if it were the funniest thing in the world. “Teacher? Killed? You haven’t forgotten what she is, have you? Believe me, Priceless, if there were something in this part of the world capable of killing her that ‘we’ might encounter out there, none of you would be alive to ask that question. I know of only a few beings that might have that power, and she is a treasure to them all.”

“Something funny?” Solution asked as she entered the room.

“Nothing you’d understand, Teacher.” Nua said admiringly, “I was just giving them final instructions about what to do if I die.”

Solution pursed her lips. “If you die, I’ll be very disappointed in you. While I was out there, I asked a few questions about Bracer, as near as I can tell, he’s about as skilled as the adamantite ranked adventurers in the Sorcerous Empire. In short, he’s not a threat.”

Nua raised her eyebrow and went to take her teacher’s hands in her own. “Teacher, I’m not that strong… am I?”

Solution’s hands morphed into the blue gel-like substance that could drown or choke or dissolve a living body, and engulfed Nua’s hands, right and left alike. She gave her student a sadistic smile. “You fear no pain, you are its mistress, you fear no death, because you serve it’s master. You have given up your hand to a monster’s hunger, and were given a replacement that passes beyond flesh. You are my student, and you have worked hard. I don’t praise you, student of mine.” Solution leaned in, and Nua felt the burning sensation in her right hand, but did not move as the ruby lips of the buxom demon came close to her twitching elven ears. “I only state the truth… You will break Bracer, and thereby make a name to build a foundation upon.”

Nua pressed her cheek to that of Solution, and rubbed it there slowly, affectionately, indifferent to the feeling of burning on the flesh there as too minor to matter and whispering in turn as the closeness of space between the two seemed to vanish, “I will break Bracer. I will succeed. As one crossed every line for me, I can do no less. Only lend me your strength Teacher, so I can use my own to best effect. And if I should die, I will be happy to let you feast, and become one with you who gave me everything after he was gone.”

Kaiji watched the bizarre intimacy between the two, monster and elf, and shuddered, glad they were so lost within one another that they did not notice her or Priceless backing away rapidly. ‘I don’t even want to know what monsters whisper to one another…’ She trembled at the thought, and taking Priceless by one hand and materials in another, she led the mute human woman out of the room to carry out the orders they were given.

Nightfall came far too swiftly for Kaiji’s liking, the feeling of looking at those two engulfed in shadows despite the daylight, was reason enough to slow her steps. ‘At least Priceless did well.’ She thought to herself as they went back inside holding the stack of papers in hand, but as she drew closer to the room containing the monster and the mistress, her steps slowed even more.

Priceless reached out and took her hand, “Come on… going slower won’t accomplish anything…” She said urgently, then glancing up and down the hall when Kaiji failed to go faster, she stepped in front of the demon-elf and grabbed her shoulders, sure they were alone, she whispered still.

“I’m scared too… she’s kind as can be, but also cold and… I feel the violence through her look alone… she gave me this beautiful name but… bears a hand that takes and gives life like a goddess. But you ‘can’t’ slow down. We can’t just walk away from her. Just take comfort, she’s been drinking, so she’s happy, probably tired and… even though I’m a coward, I’ll be with you.” Priceless gave a weak and trembling smile that was meant to be encouraging.

Kaiji finally managed to return it, but then asked, “C-Can I share your cage tonight… I…”

Priceless nodded, “It’s OK, if you hadn’t asked just now, I was going to ask you.”

They drew what strength they could from one another in the moment, and rushed back to the room that held their lives prisoner.

They entered quietly, not a sound could be heard, but a familiar voice told them that they had been heard instead.

“She’s asleep, put your work on the chest, strip, hang up your clothes, and look by your cages.” Solution said indifferently.

Illuminated by a single candle in the darkness on the chest, were two woven mats. “Courtesy of your owner, you can thank her by waking up on time tomorrow.” Solution said as she tapped her fingers on the table where she sat.

They had no words to give in answer, so they simply obeyed, until Kaiji gathered her courage to speak up. “May we… share a cage tonight, Lady Solution?”

The monster that was no lady, seemed to find the request amusing, judging by the small upturn of her lips illuminated by the candle in the darkness on the other side of the room. Fire danced in her cold blue eyes, and Solution’s breasts rose and fell with the amused chuckle that came out.

She approached and taking a cage by the heavy iron bar, she picked it up, flipped it on its side so that the door of it opened out facing the bed, and opened it up after setting it gently on the floor. “Get your mats and get in.”

It was a distant bit of curiosity to Kaiji, as after laying the two mats over the bars, and having no choice but to crawl in to lie down, that she felt none of the humiliation she felt she should have. When Priceless lay beside her, all she felt was a sense of relief, as the door of their confinement closed on them both.