Nua didn’t respond immediately to the question Sobella put to her. Instead, she replied, “Wait.” And went about making their impromptu camp more comfortable. She took a pair of mossy fallen logs over her shoulders and brought them to where Sobella waited. One she dropped at the noble sacrifice’s feet, the other she tossed easily through the air a few feet away. They landed with soft thuds into the earth, scattering some insects that found their homes thrown into chaos by the wood elf assassin.

Sobella sat demurely, sensing Nua’s wishes, and within a few minutes, a hole was dug, bear meat was sliced up into a pot, and the scent of hot field stew was rising with the smoke. Only when Nua sat did she look at Sobella again. She tossed a wooden bowl to the former slave and held one herself, glanced at the stew, stirred it and inhaled deeply. “Smells good, it won’t be long. Now, Sobella, I’m fairly sure I must have misunderstood you before. Could you ask your question again?”

Sobella’s beautiful deep red eyes met Nua’s shining blue and she asked again, “Are you planning to kill my Rasgen?”

“Why don’t we start with… why you would even ask a question like that?” Nua’s brow furrowed and she stared at the woman passively otherwise.

“I watched you assassinate that bear, I’ve never seen someone do that before. Warriors might want some silly contest against it, a hunter simply puts it down. But you? You crippled it and then treated it like a target for a murder. You drew it close, then killed it. You’ve been drawing us… Rasgen and myself, close. Are you going to kill him? Or try to, at least? Did someone hire you? And… is it possible to buy you off that? I’d do anything to see him live.” Sobella’s brave face didn’t vanish when she hesitated, but the small twitches at the corners of her eye told Nua much, after her experiences with Kaiji.

‘She’s worried about him. Poor thing. Brave, very brave though, riding to her death and all she thinks about is the one she left behind.’ Nua thought while shaking her head.

Nua stirred the stew once, then dipped her bowl into the stew and drew it out. She removed a hardtack biscuit and dipped it into the stew. While it soaked up the juices, she answered her charge. “No, Sobella. I have not been hired to kill Prince Rasgen.” Nua gave her ward a radiant smile that bordered on outright laughter, “A woman in my position doesn’t get a lot of friends, so I’m not about to take some kind of contract that would end his life. Besides, you’ve seen for yourself, I’m the richest woman in the city, why would I need to take some high risk low reward contract that could only disrupt my life? No, I am an assassin, Sobella. You’re right, but I am a death worshipper, your investigations into me have probably revealed that much, haven’t they?” Nua cracked the knuckles of her right hand, the noise reached across the divide between the two, and the demon-elf could only nod.

Nua played idly with her knife, flipping it around in the palm of her left hand before jabbing a piece of meat and bringing it to her lips. She tore the succulent piece apart, savoring the rich juices, chewing, and swallowing heartily. She then added, “War is where death can be found, and so there is no better place for someone like me than with a company of mercenaries where I can glorify my god by actions on the field.”

“That’s a… relief.” Sobella replied, and her entire body relaxed, her shoulders slumped forward and she took some of the stew for herself. The sweat from her worry was still dripping down Sobella’s face, but the drops that fled their point of origin were not followed by fresh ones.

They ate quietly and Nua was done putting out the fire and laying out her bedroll before Sobella spoke again. “You’re really not going to ask?”

“Ask what?” Nua said without looking over her shoulder.

“What it is that I wanted you for. You’re not going to ask?” Sobella unrolled her dark green roll and lay down near to the slowly dissipating smoke of the cook fire.

“No,” Nua answered with a shrug, “If you want me to know, say it, if you don’t, then it’s either something I’ll do anyway whether you tell me or not, or it’s something I’d probably not want to know anyway. Go ahead and sleep, Sobella, it’s a long day tomorrow. I’ll keep watch.”

She reached up and scratched at the horn on the right side of her head. “Westerners, you’re strange… but aren’t you tired? I slept so much already…” Sobella revealed the lie of her statement when she yawned heavily.

Nua gave a little snort of amusement, “It’s OK, Sobella. I’m a priestess of the god of death, one of the consequences of that is a reduced need for sleep. I do enjoy waking up in my nice warm bed, but…” She tapped her foot and crossed her arms and looked away from where she stood, “Well how do I explain it to you? I just can’t get any work done while I’m asleep, there’s always so much to do. I’m only just getting staff here, getting it all running takes time. So I don’t like to sleep. I’m the first awake, last asleep, I honestly don’t know how anyone in Pas’en gets anything done at all.”

“So you…” Sobella’s yawn interrupted her words, she covered her mouth briefly and stretched out, “...work like a slave? Bizarre, you’re beyond bizarre. It makes no sense, but maybe that’s what we need, what Rasgen needs. I’ll tell you what I want from you in time, but for now, just keep me safe while I rest.” She trailed off her last words and promptly fell asleep.

Nua stood up when Sobella began to doze and began to pace the camp, looking out into the darkness of the woods and the long road ahead. ‘Such a shame, I hate to give her such an unfortunate half truth, but I’d really rather she not go to her death without any hope for those she leaves behind.’ Nua idly took out her knife and began to spin it in her hand, ‘Maybe you’re not all that good anymore, Nua. But you’re not all that bad either.’

‘Well if it helps, partner,’ Yersin interjected, ‘I couldn’t have asked for a more compatible companion among the races outside my lord’s home, not that I know of anyway.’

‘There’s a ringing endorsement.’ Nua couldn’t help but laugh, and savored the sense of warm camaraderie that she got from the act before she settled in to keep watch for the better part of the night.

Kaiji woke up with a blissful warmth of treasured and familiar limbs entangled with her own. It was not however, the sound of her mistress’s voice calling her to work… ‘Did I more than once, rise before her? And then, I think she let me.’ It was an unpleasant thought that had her stomach in knots when she’d gone to sleep the night before. And when the light of the sun hit her eyes and caused her to wake, her lids flew open in alarm. The warmth of Priceless’s body, comforting as it was, had to be disentangled from.

Her limbs practically flew from those of her lover, ‘Mistress’s bath! Her breakfast! Her schedule!’ Kaiji screamed inside her head and felt sweat drip down over her skin as she rushed to her wardrobe. She almost stopped, ‘No! Throw on a robe? Show her she’s…’ Kaiji stopped dead in mid-step and in mid-thought.

“You’re awake…” Priceless said, sitting up in bed and rubbing the sleep away from her eyes.

“I forgot… she’s gone, and we’ve been left behind again!” Kaiji exclaimed and swallowed the bitter words, her fists clenched at her sides as she turned to face her lover… her possession… her treasured Priceless.

The brown haired slave woman arose from the bed and slowly approached her. “My Kaiji… this is part of it too…” She whispered and wrapped her arms around the bare, dark purple skin of the demon elf. Priceless drew the woman close, so that their breasts pressed tight at the heart. “We may love her for all that she’s given us, but we are not her companions, not her comrades.” Priceless teasingly reached up and flicked the purple tag that dangled from Kaiji’s bronze collar. “We are her tools, she may in some way, care for us… much as I didn’t think such a thing was possible. Not really.” She stroked the distraught Kaiji on the back of her head, running her slender fingers through the ink dark strands of hair that tumbled down Kaiji’s back.

Priceless stroked Kaiji’s cheek, wiping away the evidence of nervous sweat when sleep’s last gasps held back her memory of the day before until she was fully awake. “This is our place, as extensions of her will, bearing the honor of her voice. Make her proud, that is all you or I can do. And don’t worry about sleeping in, for all her hard work, you know most of the city won’t rise for another hour or two. Not the parts of it we need at least. Come, let’s bathe and have a meal, then we can go to her office and start working.”

“But… she has no one to attend her…” Kaiji groused with a stormy look on her face, “She left us behind to go to that place alone, I should have snuck off, I should have disobeyed! Even if she whipped me for it!” Kaiji’s voice was getting higher, her clenched fists trembled with frustration. Her bright red eyes darkened with self recriminating fury until Priceless cupped her cheeks and silenced her ranting with a kiss.

The taste of warm lips, offered up so suddenly, was enough to throw her off her line of thought, and allow Priceless to speak. “You’re her Majordomo… this is her back… you’ve never served this way, but you were close to it. You were the Prime Minister to Prince Sado… right? So now… do that, or close to it, I think…” Priceless drifted off, blushing a little and stepping away.

Still, she tried to carry on with words that were harder to say than she thought they’d be. “Come on! We’re her hands, her eyes, her ears and her voice while she’s off out there, this is a chance.” Priceless cut the words off and hung her head low.

“Priceless, a chance for what?” Kaiji asked, kissing her lover’s forehead lightly.

“She carried me out of hell over her own shoulders… she came to kill for me, took a risk for me. Not many people would do that for anyone but their own family, how many owners do you think ever do that for their slaves? This is my chance to pay her back, that’s all.” Priceless replied with transparent simplicity, then a bittersweet smile came over her face that became a much amused smirk. “However, you know we can’t do any of that smelling like last night or running around in robes…”

Kaiji managed to part her lips and laughter spilled out like an overturned jug of milk as she, rubbing her eyes with one hand, replied, “You always know how to make me feel better, Priceless, you’re a treasure!” She exclaimed, grasping her treasure by the hand.

The private baths of the estate were utilized by only a handful of names on a list, while the common baths were reserved for the soldiers and common staff. On the list left behind by their mistress, Kaiji found only those of herself and Priceless, Freyjin, Solution, Onimeus, the guest adventurer trainers, and a hastily scrawled in reference to Sado that included the condition of having three thousand soldiers under his command and battle ready. Such was the rhythm of the day. However, the pair found themselves sharing the baths only with the Steward.

The steam rose high and thick, obscuring their flesh like clothing. The water echoed a bit, but was diminished by the sound of Priceless scrubbing at Kaiji’s back. Neither sound however, was enough to keep the conversation at bay.

“I didn’t expect you here this early.” Kaiji remarked to the elven woman who sat a few feet away in the low water.

Freyjin’s sharp elven features showed no emotion as she took the words in while washing herself. “I am the Steward of House Aiwenor, I must imitate my mistress’s work ethic while she’s gone. She put my daughter in my arms again, I can trade some extra sleep for that.” She let out derisive huff at the implied criticism, but sensing the genuine question underneath, she went on. “Besides, I have to prepare for the ball. Mistress Aiwenor wants to host one for the major guilds of the city…”

“Isn’t that kinda strange?” Priceless asked with doubtful understanding etched on her face.

“How so?” Kaiji asked over her shoulder.

“Well, she hasn’t even had one for her coronation as a Duchessa yet. Shouldn’t that come first?” Priceless had her head cocked slightly so that she could see beyond her lover’s shoulder to the woman who sat opposite them, and Freyjin gave a very small nod.

Freyjin went on to explain in a slow and patient voice, “That is true, if she had a date set already. As it stands now, there is none, so it’s not a problem. If anyone does object, and they won’t, but if anyone does, it can be played off as the result of throwing something bigger for all the important nobility of the city. My guess is that she’s laying the groundwork for an army by forging connections with the merchants and the craftsmen of the guilds.”

“That… I understand, but… there used to be a man who rented me sometimes after he bought my virginity, and he liked to, you know, talk… after. I learned a lot from him on things that go on in castles and, well, you know, courts…” Priceless stopped talking while they stared at her. She looked at their expressions with blank incomprehension.

“Wh-What?” She asked with slow hesitancy, “Did I say something stupid?” A slow blush began to rise on her cheeks until Kaiji leaned back against her.

The demon elf put her hand gently on the left side of Priceless’s face while her head leaned back against the right side. “Nothing, nothing at all, my Priceless.” She said with perhaps the saddest, widest eyed expression Priceless had ever seen, etched over her lover’s face. “Please continue.”

“Right, well, it’s just that it seems dangerous to exclude nobles from a gathering like that, nobles are… sorry Kaiji, a kinda prickly lot. Maybe they’re not where the Mistress comes from, but they are here…” The gentle featured, brown haired girl blushed at the silence. “I really did say something stupid, didn’t I?” Priceless asked, and tried to go back to washing Kaiji’s back as if nothing had happened.

“No, no, that is a very good point. One I should have recognized.” Kaiji began and added, “Steward, instead of just the merchants, let’s combine it with some of the elite nobles. Make it into a casual social affair, a sort of meet and greet situation before the more formal one that includes only the nobility.”

“Those weren’t the mistress’s orders…” Freyjin’s voice practically shrank when she replied, pausing her washing to address the contradiction.

“Didn’t we speak?” Kaiji asked with obvious pretend surprise and touched the purple tag on her collar, and then the one which hung from Priceless’s own. “Are we not the voice of the mistress in her absence?”

Freyjin slumped, “No, you’re right, Majordomo. I’m not of noble stock, and was never in a class of nobility, it just concerns me, stepping outside of her orders for anything.” A shudder of Freyjin’s body spoke of lingering fear, and Kaiji’s face took on a warmer, more compassionate expression, with a kindly half smile as she relaxed, spreading herself out while Priceless moved to wash her front.

“No, no it’s alright, you’re going to find your feet in your new position, your quick thinking and skill helped find my Priceless, you’ll do fine. Just understand the difference between an express order and an express desire. The latter you have some flexibility on, you can adapt to make it work. And please don’t worry, this came through my orders, if the mistress is displeased, I will bear the punishment.”

“That is very brave…” Freyjin said with doubtful tone as she stood up to the sound of water splashing as it fell away from her skin, “I’ll come by the office later, I’ll need to requisition funds to buy the laborers, I assume you want whole families again?”

“Sort of.” Kaiji replied, “Skip the elderly, but get the names of any living elder parents or grandparents belonging to the laborers you buy, we’ll continue the mistress’s practice of rewarding good service with the acquisition and liberation of a loved one.”

“As you wish, voice of the mistress.” Freyjin remarked and headed for the exit while thinking to herself, ‘...and that… that is what scares me the very most about her.’