Nua felt Freyjin’s stare at the back of her skull on another long day’s march. It was one stare she was proud of, she felt the burning anger in the woman’s eyes, the fear and trembling. ‘She is at war with herself.’ Nua mused, and was glad of it. ‘Just a little bit more, a little bit more.’ She mused, and at her side as they rode on, Solution stared at the smug expression on her pupil’s face, a look only Teacher could see.

Nua, of course, saw the watching of her Teacher, and savored it. ‘She might not say it… but she knows what I’ve done, and she is pleased. If she weren’t I would ‘definitely’ hear her say a great deal.’ Nua thought to herself, a swelling of contentment and tranquility at ease beneath her breast, she marched them until nightfall, allowing little time to stop and rest. When that finally happened, she called them to assembly.

“Tomorrow morning, we will arrive back in Pas’en. When that happens, ‘many’ things will change for you.” She said from atop her horse, her eyes intense and focused, there was not a pair that didn’t look up at her. Fear lit many a face. ‘They fear the block, having had this taste of something certain at least.’ She recognized that fear at least, and chose to allay it.

“I’m proud of what you’ve done, and you can rest assured, none of you are going to be sold. You are my Breakers. I am your Captain and your Mistress. Neither of those things will change when we return.” She stopped speaking to allow the enormous exhale of relieved breaths to pass by.

“You will be returning to your cages, however, your time there will be very brief. Assuming the slaves I left behind have done their work, I will be able to buy the land needed to keep my first promise to you. To free one among your family or friends.” The cheers they let loose was all but deafening, and it went on for several minutes until Nua raised her arms over her head to tell them to go silent.

“In addition, I will ensure I have a proper barracks for you to reside in, and there will be no cages after that.” She added decisively, and the cheers returned.

Again she had to hold her hands aloft to still her soldiers’ enthusiasm.

“You will train daily, hour after hour, most of the day, under the stewardship of Orcis and Lymestra again, and I will be expanding your numbers for future jobs. Moreover, it will be only Komestrans that I add to your ranks. You will stand amongst your own again, in time, a Komestran Army will again be a thing of dread on the battlefield. Assuming of course… you will follow your Prince again, as one of my commanders, this time.” She stretched out her right hand to where the Prince stood, and shock came over his eyes. She smirked slightly as his understanding began to dawn.

Again the cheers went up. The little band was reaching a fever pitch of excitement.

Yet Nua was not done. “Lastly, when we return to the city, I will provide a reward to you of two days of free time, along with silver to spend as you like. However…” She stared down her nose, “any one of you who breaks the law and finds themselves arrested… can expect not to be returned to the ranks afterward. If I wanted animals, there was a different auction I could have gone to. Beyond that however, when we have settled in, go, play, have fun, and let it be known to one and all that every man and woman among Captain Aiwenor’s Breakers… is worth eight of anyone else!”

She didn’t try to still their cheers the second time as they savored the prospect of silver to spend and time to relax and enjoy themselves. They cheered until they were nearly hoarse, making it take longer to establish the camp. That meant it was dark when Nua approached Freyjin near the bonfire.

The little girls were asleep again. “Have they spoken yet?” Nua asked quietly.

Freyjin gave a tearful smile, “Y-Yes, mistress.” She touched the forehead of the one wrapped in her left arm. “This is Leneh.” She then stroked the cheek of the twin snuggled in her right arm. “This is Straen.”

“Pretty names.” Nua said politely. ‘Don’t say it… don’t… don’t do that, of all the things…’ She begged herself, she pleaded with herself, but Nua did not listen to herself, instead she proceeded without mercy, regardless of the cracks she felt forming in her heart. “I’m sure you’ll miss them, but, you’ll get over it, won’t you, slave?”

Confusion ran over Freyjin’s face.

Nua stared down at the woman and watched understanding and heartbreak form.

She clutched them tighter.

“You were only tasked to take care of these slaves until we returned to Pas’en. Once we enter, I intend to acquire a proper estate. I will move them in there.” Nua explained casually as if she were talking about how one would house a dog.

“But, but Mistress, they trust me. At least a little. They’ve endured so much already.” Freyjin’s anxiety caused her words to come out shaking.

“Unfortunate for them, isn’t it? They trust you to look after them… but here you are about to just give them up because I say so, without even a fight. That is their first, and harshest lesson, then. Never love a slave, never trust a slave to love them enough to fight for them, or to protect them. A bitter lesson, but better learned now than later. I will ensure they are raised within my faith, because even if they’re my slaves, at least they’ll know I won’t just give them up on say so.”

“I’ll give you till we get to the city, slave. Then I’m taking them away from you, don’t expect to see them again, you said goodbye to whatever her name was, your last daughter, you can say goodby two more times. I wonder if they’ll cry?” Nua’s rage roared through her blood as she laid into the slave, ‘Damn you! Damn you!’ She screamed inside her head, but she couldn’t tell if it was at herself or at Freyjin. “Well, those tears will pass when you do nothing to keep them. You’ll be a bitter memory, then if they’re lucky, a forgotten one, and they won’t even recognize you when they see you in formation, eventually.”

“Make your peace with it now, slave.” Nua said coldly, and turned to walk away.

She was two paces distance when her ears twitched at a single word.

“No.” Freyjin whimpered.

Nua stopped in her tracks. She looked over her shoulder. “What was that, slave?”

“No.” Freyjin said, it was shakily, but it was more than a whimper.

“Did you just tell your stars ordained Mistress… no?” Nua asked in pretend shock, her voice going loud enough that those close to the big fire heard her, and silence began to fall as whispered words carried the question beyond the range it could have otherwise been heard.

“Yes, Mistress.” Freyjin said with her eyes instinctively down in the dirt, but her arms did not slacken their grip on the girls she held there.

“Pick up your sword, and prove to me you mean that.” Nua ordered coldly.

Freyjin wavered, hesitant, the little girls rustled a little against her body, one of them rested a sleepy head against her breast, and Freyjin saw a tiny smile of happiness. ‘I can’t! I can’t! I can’t! Not again! How I did it once I’ll never know… but again?! I can’t live with it! Even after a few days… to think of it…’ Freyjin kept back her whimper of terror, and gently eased her twin charges down to the ground.

She then took up her sword and stood in front of the pair. ‘By the stars…’ Freyjin felt her blood race, she recalled the fight she’d glimpsed between Bracer and her Captain, the way blades flashed out like lightning in parries and thrusts, the way Nua’s blade cut flesh and armor with equal ease.

Still, she moved forward to a few paces away from her Captain. Nua made it simple, “Hold me back from those girls for two minutes, and I will retract my intent.”

Despair swept through Freyjin, ‘She’s too fast… she’ll get around me!’ She thought for a moment, and then she saw the way her Mistress stared through her. ‘No, she won’t, she’ll come straight on.’

The Prince of Chains ordained the start in an instant, without waiting for permission, without waiting for the request, without waiting for an order, he simply shouted: “Begin!”

Freyjin felt her blood pumping like mad through her body. ‘Not again not again not again not again not again not again! I can’t let it happen again! I can’t!’ The cry was there shrieking out of her very soul and yet for all that the words had no meaning, there was only the crystalized will of a slave on the verge of breaking down, to strike back once. Her sword was level at her side, her hair flew in the air behind her. Her eyes were hard with anger… ‘I can win!’ She felt certain.

Nua stepped into the thrust that shot out from the waist, slapped the blade aside with her left hand, and caught Freyjin by the throat with her right. She squeezed, lifted, and drawing her back, Nua then flung her bodily in the direction she’d charged from.

Freyjin bounced, but popped back up to her feet as Nua closed the gap between herself and the two girls by several steps. Again she charged, she swung her sword several times, at Nua’s head, her arms, she cut diagonally, she cut across, she thrust out straight. Yet Nua moved with the desperate cutting of the screaming elf, avoiding the wild and undisciplined, hopeless swordwork. Finally, Nua slapped the sword away with her left hand again, and slammed her forehead into Freyjin’s nose.

It shattered with a sickening crunch, and the elf woman staggered a few steps before falling backwards onto her ass. Nua walked forward a few more paces, and at her feet, Freyjin screamed and launched herself at Nua’s knees.

She caught her mistress there, and grabbed hold. Nua grabbed her hair, yanked her up, and slammed her knee into Freyjin’s nose hard enough to send her flopping to the ground again.

Her strength was fading and fading fast, ‘That hurt… no… I can’t… I have… I have to push harder! Just a little… bit… more!’ Freyjin screamed to herself, and as Nua was about to step over her, Freyjin darted out her hand to grab Nua’s boot.

It was a pathetic, desperate effort, she knew it, Nua knew it, the watchers knew it. Nua lifted her boot over Freyjin’s head.

“You’re one blow from not standing up again. Are you sure you don’t want to just let go?” She asked with disturbing casualness when looking down at the bloody Freyjin.

“Not…” She started to say, and hacked up flecks of blood into the dirt and onto the boot she’d grabbed, she could say no more.

“Good.” Nua said, and moved her foot away, to set it back to the ground. “Because that… is time. You won, Freyjin. You won.” Freyjin looked up in uncertainty for a moment.

Nua held her right hand down to where the elven woman lay half dead from the savage thrashing. Freyjin was about to kiss the palm, when to her surprise, Nua moved it away from her lips. “No. Take my hand, in your hand.” Nua said with a voice of reverence.

It was slow, it was fearful still, but she raised her hand up, and Nua clasped it tight, and hauled the woman to her feet with a great, rough pull. She then said it again more loudly. “You won!” And when Freyjin looked at her mistress, the only thing she saw in the blue eyes of her owner, was supreme, and overwhelming happiness… and not a small amount of pride.

Pounding feet from her fellows, to include her Prince, celebrated the struggle’s outcome. But she could beneath that hear Nua whisper into her ear, “You ‘can’ defy fate. You did it just now. Follow me, with all that you are, and it can be done ten thousand times more.”

Freyjin could think of no answer as she was helped to lay beside the fire on her back, and a healing potion was procured with which to restore her. Even once restored, she barely moved, lying there like a puppet whose strings had been cut. She simply laid staring up at the stars that stared silently down at her, waiting for a condemnation that would never come.

She didn’t break that silence all night, or the next morning, when they finally broke camp and made their way back to the city of Pas’en with a terrified Bracer in tow.

As they reached the gate, Nua looked behind her, “We’re back, but that doesn’t mean, even with your days of rest, that there isn’t a lot to do. When we go in, the work, such as it is… well… it’s here that the work really begins.” Nua then spurred her horse to the guard to sign her soldiers in, eager to go within and see what she’d missed.

Kaiji savored the feel of the hand in hers as they moved from the market. With the bronze collars on, they went untroubled, save for their brief time passing through the slave market. As that took place, Kaiji whispered only, “Keep your eyes on me, do not look.”

And the hand she held gripped a little tighter as the former noble woman guided her through it so that she did not have to bear more than hearing the bids being called out.

“Do you think we’ll get purple tags?” Kaiji asked congenially as soon as they passed.

Priceless practically purred, “I… how could I even imagine.” She asked as she watched a purple tagged slave tapping their foot impatiently while a free laborer hurried to bring a newly repaired wagon out. “To say… with my own words, to look into the eyes of someone else and not have to look down like I’m ashamed to exist… even wearing the bronze… beyond my wildest hopes.”

Kaiji couldn’t keep the pleasure out of her voice, “It’s… almost like being free. Lady Kaiji used to have a purple tagged slave, a cunning one she used to seduce important but doubtfully well intended visitors at court. She was able to display all her talents and her wit, and had much power at the court of Prince Sado. Of course who knows where she is now? Probably a purple tag in some distant Prince’s harem.”

“That would be… amazing.” Priceless replied, “I don’t have a single thing I excel at but… maybe I can learn more when the mistress returns. She’s been gone for well over a week now, do you… think she’s alright?” A hint of anxiety touched Priceless’s words and briefly her eyes became troubled.

Kaiji squeezed her hand tightly, “Absolutely. When I visited the Prince, I told him, “I believe in my Mistress.” Yes, she’s scary, but… with that monster at her side and some cunning, and the equipment she left with? Yes, I believe she will survive and come back to us. We have enough money left to last another month if we need to. For now, we just need to concern ourselves with our tasks. Speaking of, where do we go from here?”

Priceless thought it over and looked around, “If nothing has changed since last I was here, we’re only a few minutes from the horse breeders. Mistress wants enough horses for one hundred riders. I… admit, I don’t understand why she cares so little about the quality of horse though.”

Kaiji pursed her lips in deep thought. “You were once owned by a cavalry officer, weren’t you? That’s how you learned about horses?”

Priceless clutched her lover's hand tightly, “Sort of.” She said abruptly, “This way now.”

She tugged Kaiji’s hand down a right turn, going silent for the rest of the walk until they reached an open courtyard.

The stable area was large and deep, running back a considerable length, a wide dirt track circled the single building, and beyond that, various jumps and targets where men of cavalry could practice their skills, and practice they were. A pair of orcs charged one another in full armor on large percherons and battered at each other with thick wooden swords, wheeling about, they came at one another again. Beyond them, a large horse jumped a series of ever higher horizontal poles that had been staked out for it, beyond each was a melon that sat impaled on a stake. After every jump, the rider slashed the melon open until he reached the end of the course. Around the track, a series of four horses seemed to be racing, but the riders kept pushing and shoving against one another, until one unfortunate fell… and the other three continued on as they rounded the track.

“Pas’en’s cavalry training is… vigorous. No wonder they defeated my city’s horsemen.” Kaiji admitted reluctantly. She took a step toward the stable area, only to find that Priceless didn’t move.

She looked over her shoulder. Priceless was rooted to the ground. “Don’t make me go there. Let me wait here, you… can handle the purchase, I helped you find it, please don’t ask me for more.”

Kaiji looked at the frozen Priceless, when she saw the girl’s face, the demon-elf had a brief memory come to her mind of the time when hunting beside her father, she’d been spotted by a deer just before she could loose her arrow, the raw terror… ‘If it had run, it would have lived. Instead, it died because it was too scared to move, she wears the deer’s face now.’

Kaiji leaned forward and whispered into her ear, “Just wait here, it’ll be fine.”

So alone Kaiji walked over the long open grounds, she walked with the grace and poise of the nobility, her feet falling firmly and surely over every blade of grass and dirt, her back ramrod straight and head held high, she drew some interested looks, but was largely ignored until she reached the main office to negotiate the purchase for her Mistress.

Two hours later when Kaiji came out, she looked around, and Priceless was gone.