The snake like young man strode forward and spoke up. “What of these other worms?” Jace straightened from his kneeling, and watched the young man as he approached, the girl in black following close behind.

“Child, Elis spoke naught of them. Though it looks to me as if that large one is not affected by the curse.” The woman spoke again, no longer in the venomous tone from before but like that of a doting mother.

“May I take that slave? I would like very much to see how much pain a human female can take before dying.” Something atrocious just left the foul young man’s mouth. Jace pushed Sam behind him again, knowing it was futile but not knowing what else to do.

His mind was racing in circles. He knew he couldn't win a battle against these people. He didn't even know where to start. But he really couldn't believe his life would end here. It all seemed so pointless.

“Torturing pets to death? Disgusting. What have you taught this boy of yours Verna?” Surprisingly one of the other blood splattered Kindred spoke up in objection. The woman Verna looked irritated at the comment and who it came from, then looked at her son.

“If you want something child you must pay for it, I did not raise a thief. Talk to the slave girl’s master and reach a compromise.” More horrible words came from the horrible redheaded woman’s mouth.

Jace’s mind kept running and running around in circles trying to think of a way out of this situation with his life in tact. He even for a brief shameful moment had a thought about abandoning Sam to these monsters if it meant he could live through this. However that was only a moment, it wasn’t until this moment he realized there were some things that were worth more then his life. Pride, he’d rather die as a good person then as filth. If his journey was to end here, then he’d do it with his head high, not begging on his knees.

‘Of course if begging would keep me alive...’ he thought. It seemed there were some limits to his pride.

The Kindred youth strode forward and looked at Jace, then he pulled out a single coin called a “Tal” after “Talon” for “dragon’s talon”, even with the old king long gone the currency was still named after him. His mind ran in circles on some irrelevant trivia, which he didn’t fully remember, as he couldn’t recall why exactly it was called a dragon talon, or how that related to coins. The coin of course was gold. And from what he knew of the world’s currency, 10 human slaves wouldn’t be enough flesh for a single tal of gold. So the boy was technically and massively overpaying for her.

He shook his head. “She’s not for sale.” This time he purposefully spoke those words in the dragon language. He wanted to change the situation, and the eyes of these Kindred didn’t see him as an equal. As long as they saw him as a creature to be trampled he probably would be trampled if they got irritated enough.

The kindred boy scowled. “Everything is for sale. This is far too much for a human slave. Are you an idiot?” He spoke back in the dragon tongue.

Truthfully this was a poorly considered course of action, entering into negotiations in a language he couldn’t say he was proficient in. The mother stepped in at this point. “Look at the humans, see how he is shielding her and that white robe? He is in love with this slave, my child. Of course he’d reject an offer of a single tal.”

The young man smirked and nodded. “Everything is for sale. I want to know what your price is for this woman, at what point does a human sell his love?” He took a pouch of coins off his belt and upended it into his palm. 20 or 30 Tals of gold were resting in his hand.

It didn’t take Jace a second to shake his head. “Not for sale.”

“Nonsense. I’d sell my own sister for this amount of gold. My slave isn’t even worth this much gold. How stupid do you sound?” The boorish young man complained.

The woman had a look of irritation on her face. “Forget about it. I will buy you a slave girl so you can torment to death later. Leave it be.”

“But I want this one, I want to do it here. I want to pull her arms off and watch her scream while this worm watches, a bag of gold in his hands… ” Monstrous young man started complaining.

Jace’s nerves were on edge, he noted that the other kindred were going to be no help, they mostly seemed like they saw the whole thing distasteful. But what really bothered him was the mother’s eyes when the kid started whining. He had a bad premonition that she was the type of mother who gave in to her little monster’s every selfish whim. He knew the only reason the young monster was even talking and not simply taking her was because of his mother. If she decided talking was pointless she might kill him herself. Still he couldn’t see a good way out of this without selling Sam.

Shaking his head, he spoke quietly. “You’ll have to kill me if you want her.”

The young man looked at the mother pleadingly. The mother glanced at the other kindred. The young man seemed to have an idea and grinned viciously.

“I know a way to solve this. We can play Meri’ack for her. If I win, I get your slave, if you win you get this gold.”

Jace made a face. Meri’ack was not a game he could win against a Kindred. It was a kindred game after-all. He beat Teral before by relying on alcohol and waiting for Teral’s adrenalin to wear out and shock to set in. When shock starts to set in it becomes hard to hold your blade steady, your hands shake too much, furthermore your will erodes. He was relying on some very amateur understanding of human biology to defeat Teral. He had no knowledge about kindred biology. While they were human-dragon hybrids, he knew their bodies were nowhere near as weak as a human. Still he needed a way out, a path to victory before the mom just slaughtered him.

Unfortunately he couldn't figure out what that might be.