The young slave girl’s name used to be Dehlah. Or it was before the Sage purchased her. She had the misfortune of being born female in a family in need of a male heir and with too many female mouths to feed. She actually had little memory of her family’s home, and only a vague idea of her parent’s motives, she reasoned them out AFTER she was sold, and assumed it probably was true. Truth was she wasn’t even sure how old she was. She thought she was sold when she was 4 or 5, though in reality it might have been when she was 6. She thought perhaps 10 years had passed since she was sold to the Sage.

Dripping wet, she looked at the sage in confusion as he directed her to scrub her hands and feet raw with a pumice stone. She had been scrubbing her skin raw for what seemed like half a day. The Sage had even brought a strange fairy slave girl. The fairy slave girl was pretty, and far cleaner than any human she had ever seen before that new young man had been brought here. She still didn’t know what the fairy girl’s purpose was. She had seen a number of Fairies, they were living in a Fairy kingdom, but the girl was a bit different than most. Her skin was not fair but dark, a deep tan, her hair was gold, not the pale straw like hair of a human's but rich and thick almost like liquid metal and her eyes were a beautiful lilac purple. The fairy must have cost a small fortune, and she looked like she knew it, because she kept looking at her with a very offended or even disgusted look.

The look in the fairy’s eyes actually mirrored the eyes of that young man. She had never seen a person quiet like him. In fact she wasn't even sure he was human. Part of her was terrified of him. The look of disgust he cast her way was not something she was used to. She had been prepared for this for years, most of her life really. But it always seemed so unreal to her. She wasn't stupid. In fact had her situation been different she probably could have been a success at most things in this world. She was the smartest of the slaves the Sage, master, had trained. This training sidetracked her from a fate she had always been told to accept, motherhood. She already was the oldest slave without a child. The only girls here who didn't have children were those too young to have them. She had passed the point where she should be having children a couple of years ago. She knew she was an important part in this project. Not just to teach the summoned man the language but to help him with a lot of other things as well.

After what seemed like another hour of washing and scrubbing, chilled to the bone, the young women’s hands and feet were no longer black with dirt. Her skin, while so pale as to be nearly see through, was no longer grey with dirt. The transformation was shocking, and the reason for it was puzzling to her. As she couldn’t figure out the purpose for her to be made this clean. ‘Wasn’t it just going to get filthy again?’

To her amazement the fairy then proceeded to instruct her how to comb her hair, and another wonder appeared, an ivory comb, which the sage was now hers.

This stunned her to silence as slaves didn’t own anything

“Why?” She mumbled.

“It is probably pointless, making a frog into a dragon is impossible. But the boy doesn’t like you. You need him to like you or we wasted 20 years on this project. This is the hope of mankind here. So the comb is yours, this washroom is yours, this fairy is yours to use. She is to help you keep clean, until you know how to do it yourself. You’ll need a name too. I know I told you to lose the one you had, but you’ll need one if you’re to deal with the boy. You’ll be his slave when he agrees to take possession of you, so the quicker you teach him the language the quicker you escape me. And you know what I’ve done to the slaves that fucked things up right?”

She nodded quickly, then following what the fairy girl showed her, combed her hair for the first time since she was sold. The snags hurt worse than the pumice stone she scrubbed her skin with, and with tears in her eyes she pondered different names to call herself. While the old sage prepared her last surprise. A white, nearly opaque robe and a pair of sandals.

“Those, why are you giving me THOSE?”

“Because we need the boy to work with you, and I don’t know if it’s your dirt, or nudity that’s got him on edge. This is all we can do legally. You know what those robes mean of course. You can explain it to him if you want. It’s a forgivable lie anyway.”

She stared at the clothing with some trepidation. Those robes and sandals represented a presumption no slave would dare make. After hesitating a little too long she shivered at the fear of what punishment her hesitation might bring and quickly snatched the clothing from the Sage. Then she quickly dressed herself and walked into the hall, walking awkwardly, as it was the first time in her life she ever wore any type of footwear, it almost was enough to distract herself from her worries over a name.