Freyjin raised the paddle quickly on the young woman at the commons, younger women, children, and old men were mostly sold here, kept well apart from anyone caught in uniform or under arms. ‘Hostages… a riot among the soldiers, and these will suffer.’ Freyjin was no fool, she recalled the way she and the other warriors had been herded into cages well apart from others, that the sons, daughters, and elderly of her dead city were under heavier guard than necessary.

The unspoken threat. ‘Who could bring themselves to resist when their loved ones are on the line?’ It left a shudder in her heart even to consider it now. “One silver!” She shouted from her seat. The young woman looked down at her, a humiliated expression on her face as she learned the value of her flesh.

Her fresh youthful face might have been plucked from the farm, and the auctioneer was quick to point this out. “Slave, tell them where you were caught.”

“Ah, hid’n. Hid’n in a barn… on my… my farm.” She hung her head and tried again to cover her breasts, only for the hand of the dark elf to touch her wrist, and she dropped them immediately.

“See! Passive, a proper Komestran, she’ll make an excellent field hand, or domestic servant, and she’s nice to look at, good strong legs and can put up with long hours of work without collapsing.” The dark elf auctioneer turned her to the side, slapped her bare thigh, then turned her to face the crowd and held up a hand with two fingers. “Two silver minimum.”

“Three silver!” Freyjin raised her paddle, and the auctioneer counted down, before announcing, “Sold to the buyer on a roll in seat six, paddle twenty-four!”

The girl, ‘Salli’ looked at Freyjin with dread and fear, but did not resist as she was shuffled off stage into a simple rope pen where she waited meekly staring down at the floor without a word or even a whimper.

She was the fifty-first Freyjin had bid on since morning began, and the act of raising her paddle into the air to buy her fellow citizens was growing ever more easy. ‘You think I’m taking you to hell… but you couldn’t be more wrong! I’m saving you!’ It was easy reasoning, and not even a lie. ‘You may not be free, but by the stars that sent me to my child’s savior… you do not know how lucky you are.’

One by one she sought the best servants she could, she felt the ache in her heart and turned her face away when the oldest were brought up. ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry…’ She thought, and clasped her shaking hands together to pray to the stars that the shuffling aged in chains pass swiftly to heaven before they endured much more.

She touched her hand to the bronze collar around her neck, ‘You have a duty to Mistress Aiwenor… you must not fail! She requires that you bring her servants! She was kind enough to let you buy whole families so that they wouldn’t lose their children like I did my Veema… she’s so kind…’ She felt her lip quiver as she realized it was only hours to go before she’d see her little one again.

So she suppressed the urge to buy the aged and infirm who would not make for good service in the manor of a noble house. She also passed on the very ugly, as the nobles of Pas’en would frown on the hideous in their presence. ‘Does mistress care about beauty?’ Freyjin almost broke that standard when she realized it hadn’t been an order, her paddle began to rise when a pitiable looking wretch with a hunch back and missing teeth was dragged weeping up to the stage.

She snatched her wrist so violently that she scratched herself. She winced, and closed her eyes as a few coppers saw him ushered off to a waiting cart with mining equipment in it. ‘You could have saved him from that… he’ll draw water breaking rocks in the dark for the rest of his life… and you did nothing to stop it…’

She gazed down at the stone at her feet, and a young woman with a form so shapely and green eyes so bold and brazen that she could have only been the mistress of a noble or a woman of high station. “Name and occupation.” The auctioneer said without even pretending he wasn’t leering at the shapely woman.

She didn’t pretend she didn’t know it, far from it, she was aggressive, her back straight she set her hands on her hips and let them look, “Diana, Diana of Komestra, and I was a courtesan in the service of the house Najin. And yes, I was every bit as good as you lechers think. Not that most of you can keep up, let alone afford me!” She turned her nose up at the crowd, fairly daring them to challenge her assertion and bid.

It gave Freyjin pause, ‘Would someone like her make a good maidservant? Or… wait, does my mistress prefer women for lewdity, would this be a suitable show of my desire to please her, or an unwelcome invitation?’

While she argued over the subject, the bidding rose to one gold, then two, then ten, it slowed at fifteen, and the courtesan spun on the ball of her feet, twirling her loincloth by the force of her motion and planting her spinning feet firmly on the block. “The men…” Diana remarked and turned an eye to Freyjin, who had bought up more than any other in the sight of both free and bonded alike, “and women of Pas’en, are a cheap and stingy lot.” She gave an arrogant, mocking smile to the crowd, and Freyjin felt a looming shadow in her mind.

‘I can’t allow any insult to my mistress’s house, if people think my mistress cheap…’ She shook her head and focused, the bidding had doubled and redoubled.

A bold instinct came over Freyjin, creeping over her flesh like an otherworldly force, a fragment over her warned that this was a risk, that looseness with so much of her owner’s coin might come back to haunt her, but as the desire to act rose, the courtesan Diana spoke again and sealed both their days.

“Of course the slaves who bid so cheaply, must be doing so because they fear a rivalry, but that’s silly… I have no rivals.” She touched her breast and laughed with a voice like birdsong over the crowd.

Freyjin stood from her seat and drew eyes to her with a loud ‘ahem’ of clearing her throat. “I believe,” Freyjin declared, pointing her paddle at the courtesan on stage, “that we’re all heartily tired of hearing this one insult us this way, even if she does look good doing it!” That drew a brief round of laughter, and a bemused look from both the courtesan and the auctioneer, before Freyjin finished speaking.

“Therefore I believe the house of Aiwenor should end the matter, the way it ends everything, with decisiveness and victory. Three platinum for the loud mouthed pretty.” Freyjin said sharply, with her paddle still held out toward the woman, and a hush fell over the crowd.

“Sold! Sold! Sold! Sold!” The auctioneer shouted and clapped his hands together loud enough that the crack of palm to palm echoed well beyond the crowd.

‘I’ve either done something exactly right, or I’ve just lost everything all over again… if this is wrong, I can only… stars above there’s nothing I can offer or do worth that much. I’d better hope she can do more than run her mouth and look good.’ Freyjin thought while she took her seat and waited for the bidding to start on the next member of her city. As she did so, a thought occurred to her that almost made her laugh out loud. ‘Our courtesan here almost certainly has no idea she’s not going to some lecherous old man who has to lie about what he’s doing with her, or some randy young man who finishes in a minute or two and tells the same lies as an old man. I wonder what game she’ll try to play on a mistress who has no interest in the only thing she knows.’ Freyjin wasn’t entirely proud of the pleasurable snark of the moment, but she enjoyed it nonetheless before she settled in to raise her paddle again.

Onimeus took a good long look at the hundred worthless nags that were brought onto the stable grounds and furrowed his aged white brow. “She really ordered these ah… sir?” He asked the young horseman. The horses seemed as mystified as the horseman who had them brought there. The faint odor of horse excrement was already in the air, and to it, all Onimeus could do was crinkle his nose.

“She did, she said every old worthless nag we had, and this is them, can’t ride or breed or anything anymore.” The young man gave a sharp nod and patted the side of his own mount’s head affectionately. “I’ve heard that these were good in their time, but they were all bound for the pasture before the slave of your mistress showed up with an offer to buy them all, while still asking if we had more at other sites. Who knows what she wants with them… but the budget is what it is and every coin counts after the campaign against…” His eyes fell to the iron collar, “Well, you’d know, slave.”

Onimeus grunted unhappily, “Alright, well here you go. The Majordomo gave me this for you. Count it if you like, sir.” His meaty hand closed around the pouch at his belt, and he handed it over, and the horseman shrugged.

“Nah, I don’t know how to count, they figured she wouldn’t short us on this, so, I’ll just take it.” he took up the pouch and shoved it into his own belt before handing over a receipt of delivery.

He hopped easily up on his horse and rode away like he was born in the saddle, leaving the aged old strategist to stare at the uselessness that he’d been given. “It doesn’t make sense.” He put his hands on his hips and stared at the animals, his foot tapped on the grass beneath his feet. ‘OK we can use the hides to make blankets for the soldiers and other useful things, maybe make some coins or even eat the meat, old horsemeat might be tough, but it still can have some sweetness to it. So it’s decent slave fare… but I’m missing something.’

It ate at him, it ate at him a lot, but when he called for soldiers to come out and help with the slaughter, it was at least over quick. Each soldier went to an old horse and gave a quick, sharp thrust to the chest, and a desperate whinnying cry cracked the silence before the animal toppled on its side in a death spasm. The other horses were not so stupid as to fail to recognize the danger, and made to get away… but even the trip to the manor had been much for them, and none got far.

The soldiers chased them down, ran them through, and within minutes, all of the hundred horses were nothing but corpses being on the lawn. He looked up at the sky and held his fingers up, ‘Four fingers, it’s late, the first slaves and the equipment that they’ll need will be here soon.’

He put himself in front of the mass of dead animals and waited with his back to the manor for the inevitable.

He felt the presence of the beautiful maid before he saw her. She came up beside him and asked, “Why aren’t you working, slave?”

“Forgive me, Lady Solution, but I am working.” Onimeus answered.

Solution looked behind him to the mass of horse corpses, over across the yard to the departing soldiers, and then up and down at him as if he were utterly mad, a cockeyed look with a raised eyebrow, he could feel her displeasure rising and her proximity to him shrink just a bit.

“Explain, slave.” Solution demanded with evil sweetness.

Onimeus bowed his head to her and replied in a pleasant, conversational tone, “Of course, my Lady. You see, I’ve just killed the horses as ordered, the mistress wishes them all defleshed and the meat harvested as well as the hides taken away for use, in a few short minutes,” he pointed to the path that led through the silver gate,” a series of wagons with equipment, and another series of them with slaves, will appear. When they do, I will set the new slaves to the task. By watching them, I will be able to tell who is the best fit for that kind of work, and save the new Steward trouble in assigning tasks. In this way, Lady Solution, I can increase the efficiency of the household right at its beginning.”

“How very… forward thinking, slave.” Solution folded her hands behind her back and replied in an equally conversational voice.

“Thank you, My Lady. I’ve been told by La-ah, Kaiji, that our mistress has the potential to reverse the misfortunes the last prince of Komestra brought to us, and perhaps do better. I’d be a fool not to listen to Kaiji, she’s a lot of things, but stupid isn’t one of them.” Onimeus answered without taking his eyes from the city beyond the open silver gate.

“For a lesser being, I’d agree.” Solution replied with relative disinterest, “But a word to the wise, wiseman Onimeus, don’t mistake your goals for hers, and don’t put your goals, or your former prince, before her goals or your duty to her.”

“I assume you gave my Pr… my former Prince, the same warning?” Onimeus asked while passively scanning the distance.

“Of course, but between you and he, I’m not sure who is less likely to take good advice, I may just make a private bet with myself over which one of you she gives to me when one of you crosses the line. I’m fine with either, but…” Solution’s twisted smile stretched over her face, “I don’t mind a bit of salt and pepper with my pleasures.” She patted his beard at the cheek in brief, just as wagons rounded the distant corner and began the long approach to where they stood.

“Well well, I’ll have to watch you, old man, you’re full of surprises.” Solution remarked, and folding her hands behind the back of her head, the bodyguard of their mistress withdrew through the field of corpses, back to the manor.

Onimeus let out the shudder he was suppressing, and forced himself to focus on the task at hand, after all as he pointed out to himself, ‘There’s a lot of work to do.’