I had been right, it had only taken me a couple of hours to manifest my own manacrystal, however, that left me absolutely drained. And I had only managed to produce a crystal half the size of my littlefinger nail. Meaning it was a perfect time to put my plan into motion. The plan that was the whole reason why I went to the damn slave market—excuse me, the Great Bazaar.

“I’m going to the bathing facility, where’s my new servants?” I asked Linus who was looking refreshed from earlier when he drained his mana pool.

“I will show you the way, I need you to show you how to work the controller anyway,” Linus said and rose. Much more relaxed in my company than a couple of hours before. At least in private he had almost dropped the Milord entirely.

When we stepped out of my chamber, I noticed Nina sitting on her stool. That reminded me of the promise I had made her earlier. I motioned for her to follow along and we followed Linus for twenty minutes as he led us to the bowels of the castle. By my estimate, we had to be three floors below ground. The first basement level had been storage and guardrooms, while the second and third were holding pens slash jail cells.

“Why the fuck are my new servants in a jail cell?” I growled when we came to a large cell containing a large group of females, of whom I only recognized one, the aquamancer. Though they were in much better condition, bathed and clothed. If just barely. They were dressed in a sleeveless shift, which luckily was made from thick coarse material. Which was of course not much help, because it was freaking cold and moist down here. All of them were shivering.

“You’ve not taken possession yet, not officially, Milord,” he said, going back to the more official tone he had been using earlier. Nina held back, though she kept glancing in the direction of her sister. “It’s also custom for visiting serfs to stay in a holding pen.”

I noticed that all of them looked malnourished, even the big-boned ones had a gaunt look on their face. All of them seemed to have something “wrong” with them according to my new home’s standard. Whether it was hair colour, skin colour, elongated ear tips, or eyes that I would expect on a cat. There was something you could find and be racist about if you were a world class arsehole.

Also, there were only 19 of them, and I immediately guessed which ones were missing. “Where are the elves?”

“They’re in the deepest parts of the dungeon, Milord,” Linus answered as he pulled out what looked like a leather bracer and started to put it on. It looked like high-quality brown leather with engravings and a line of what looked manacrystal down the middle of it. “This is a controller. Normally it needs to be tied to a specific user by a priest. However, this is tied to the temporary binding stone it can be used by anyone. Unlike normal manacrystals, these do not disappear. They have only one specific goal, and are powered by the Gods themselves.”

I noticed that the women started becoming anxious. They did not say anything, but the little shuffle here, the tightening of muscles could only mean one thing: They were preparing themselves for something. Linus then pointed at the crystals, “The one closest to your elbow brings the least amount of pain. The further towards your hand the more pain. The big lone one here will kill if you hold your finger on it for more than five beats.”

“I got it,” I said through clenched teeth. They were basically walking around with a noose around their neck.

“If you put one finger on the crystals, it will only target the serf you focus on. If you use two fingers, anyone you can see is affected. If you use four fingers it targets all bound to the binding stone,” Linus explained before he proceeded to put two fingers down on one of the topmost crystals.

I could hear gasps of pain from the women, a few of them fell to their knees. My hand shot out and grabbed Linus’ fingers, bending them further backwards than fingers should be able to. I broke his damn fingers, making him scream and forcing him to the ground.

“You don’t inflict pain on people unless they’ve done something wrong. Just like you just did, you hurt my servants without my permission. Pain is used to teach a lesson, not for amusement, demonstration, or to feel powerful. Do you understand the lesson I’m teaching you?” I snarled.

“Y—yes! Please let go!” he sobbed. I did let go of his fingers but shifted my grip to his wrist.

“Nina, take the bracer from him, he’s clearly not old enough to play with such a thing,” I huffed. Taking a look at the women, they were all staring with huge eyes at the scene in front of them. “Who can heal his fingers?”

Two of them tentatively stepped forward, both saying, “I can.”

“I thought I specified I only needed one, and since you only bought two additional human serfs, there must have been one amongst the bulk purchase I made,” I said to Linus. “Were my orders unclear, or do you need another lesson taught by pain?”

“No, Milord, please don’t. I bought a seven rated curomancer because the one you had already bought only had a one rating. Ones are generally useless,” he pleaded. The shorter of the two flinched at the mention of rating of one.

I considered it for a moment before letting go of his wrist. “Fair I guess. Go ahead ladies, heal his fingers.”

The one I reckoned had the seven rating stepped forward. Nina had finished her task and held out the bracer for me. I took it and absentmindedly put it on, while I looked fascinated at the display of magic behind me.

The curomancer, no fuck it, the healer had taken Linus’ hand gently in hers, which were glowing with white light. As soon as she touched his hand, Linus sighed in relief, making me think she had dulled the pain. Slowly the fingers started to move back to their natural position. It was an interesting display.

When his fingers were healed, he pulled his hand violently from the gentle grip the healer had on it. He then proceeded to shoo her back. I cuffed the back of his head. “Say thank you to the nice woman.”

“Milord!” he exclaimed horrified. “That’s not done, one doesn’t thank livestock.”

“Do it,” I ordered and casually moved my hand towards his.

“Thank you!” he quickly said and stepped away from me.

“Meh, I guess that’ll do. Next time with a little more gratitude in your voice though.”

He looked to see if I was serious, which he must have found me to be. “Of course, Milord.”

“Good. Now I need my aquamancer and ignimancer to join me, I have a job for you. Linus, fetch the elves, and get everyone quartered in some proper rooms.”

I saw three women, including the one I recognized, step forward. I raised an eyebrow at that, but before I could comment, Linus quickly said, “Milord, the ignimancer in the bulk purchase was only rated at one as well. And my apologies, Milord, it’s not possible. The King has strict orders regarding non-household serfs. They’re only allowed to leave the cells to perform their duties.”

“Fuck that shit. Fine, bring everyone to my chambers, they’ll stay there, if anyone asks if they’re performing one duty or another,” I said and threw the coin pouch at him. “Afterwards take one of those that can use magic on clothes and go buy three sets of clothes for everyone. Plus one set for travelling. As well as a lot of extra fabric. Remember boots and lots of blankets.”

He looked like he had just sucked down a whole lemon. “Milord, it’s not proper. There’ll be rumours.”

“Pfft, if they believe I’m man enough to need twenty-two women in my bed to sate my lust, I’m happy with that,” I said with a shrug. I noticed Nina frown at that. To all of the ladies, I said, “While I’m your new owner or whatever the hell it’s called, one thing I will never order you to do is sleep with me or anyone else.”

They looked uncertain at that, but I didn’t care. I looked at Linus, cracked a couple of my fingers which made him wince. “I’ve made my decision. If they want to gossip like a couple of old ladies, I don’t care.”

He gave a bow but was unable to hide his frown. “Milord, it’ll be done.”

“You three, with me,” I said and pointed at the aqua- and ignimancers. Then I pointed at the low rated healer. “You as well. Nina, go with Linus.”

“Milord, shouldn’t I—” she started.

“You can stay with everyone at my chamber. Make sure that everyone has extra to eat today.”

“Yes, Milord,” she replied with a curtsy.

I saw Linus frowning in the background. “Yes, Linus?”

“Uhm, pardon, Milord. Alas, the King will not feed the serfs extra rations.”

“Then buy some for fuck sake, I want them well-fed,” I growled and strode away before I hurt someone. Again.

The four women had to jog to keep up, as soon as I saw that I slowed down. I was not trying to teach them a lesson. Not yet, hopefully I would never need to, I disliked hurting women. I led them towards the bathrooms. I might have taken a bath earlier in the day, but it had been an unsatisfying one. Still did not have soap or anything, but this would be more of a pleasure soak.

“Okay, as you probably understood from all that back there, I’m new to this world, and I don’t know a lot of things,” I said. They looked a little sceptical, though they tried to hide it. “However, I do know that I don’t want to spend time heating water and lugging it around, much less bathing in stale water. So here’s what some of your official duties will be. You’ll be my pampering team, you will make sure that I got clean, fresh, hot water to bathe in. And when I get my hands on some soap, you’ll be washing me as well.”

The women looked resigned and nodded. The aquamancer looked a bit fearful as well. I recalled the merchant had said something about a brothel. “As I said before, none of you will be required to sleep with me or perform sexual acts. Pampering me is all I want you to do. What are your names?”

After a few moments, the healer curtsied and said, “Milord, this one is called Alianna.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said. “As I said, I’m new to this place, so there’s a lot I don’t know. I brought you here to ask you a few questions, and depending on the answers, you’ll be part of this group.”

“Milord?” she queried. She was black-haired and of average height and looked like any other person I had seen in this world. At least as long as I did not look at her eyes. Her pupils were square. She was not overly pretty, more of a young girl next door type. Awfully thin though. Her bone structure almost needed her to be carrying a little extra weight for her to look normal, and not like a starved ghoul.

“With a power rating of one, I expect you’re limited in what healing you can do,” I said and received a sad nod as an answer. “But you can ease pain, right?”

“Yes, Milord.”

“Do you do that by making muscles relax or what?”

“I can make muscles relax, Milord. It does not require a lot of power,” Alianna said.

“Great, that means you’re on Team Pampering. Whenever I’ve been exercising, and take a soak I want you to use your magic to make my body relax, to heal aching muscles,” I said with a smile. “When your power is not needed, I want you to spend your time making manacrystals for the other healer.”

“Milord, I shall do as you ask,” she said with another curtsy.

“Good, now what about the rest of you, what are your names?” I asked. The aquamancer was next to introduce herself. I chose to call her Saori, because she reminded me of a girl I met while visiting Japan. She looked better now that she was not covered in grime. She was very pretty, just a shame her hair was so short. I had a thing for long hair.

After she introduced herself she started filling the tub, and I was reminded of something. “I don’t know a lot about magic, but those that manipulate clothes, they draw the material from someplace nearby. Is it the same for you?”

“No Milord,” Saori said with downcast eyes. I looked for further explanation, but it seemed none were coming.

“Milord, if it pleases you,” one of the ignimancers said. “My name is Hope, I’m an ignimancer with a rating of nine. Like me, the aquamancers or the two other primal elemental mancers, doesn’t pull from anywhere on this plane of existence, we connect with the primal planes that the Creator used to create this world, and all the others.”

“Thanks,” I said. I did not really understand, I would have to ask Ethan if I had not scared him away.

“If Milord permits me to speak freely?” Hope asked. I looked questioningly at the dark skin beauty. She was taller than the other women, only a head shorter than me. Her hair was short and coarse, but it suited her. Her skin was a warm brown colour, mahogany I think it would be called back on Earth.

She did not take my questioning look as permission, so I gave it to her verbally. “Thank you, Milord. It would be a pleasure to serve your needs, but if all you want is the water heated, a rating of one is more than enough.”

I looked at her. She had spunk. I asked with a grin, “You don’t want to bathe me I take it?”

“Milord, it would be the utmost pleasure to do so, I simply wanted to advise you that I’m more powerful than what the job requires,” she said, with a bowed head. She sounded sincere. Yet, I didn’t believe her.

I took her chin in my hand and lifted it until I was looking her in the eyes. “Cut the crap, I’m not someone who needs cuddling or my ego stroked. Speak truthfully, and I won’t have you punished.”

Conflicting emotions flashed across her face, uncertainty battled with pride. Finally, she gave a sigh, and I released her chin. “Milord, my apologies. My former mistress wanted a hidden bodyguard, so she paid an old ignimancer to teach me how to use my magic to fight. Not something female serfs normally learn. She was poisoned by her lover, and I was sold to that fat fuck. If you really are different from the others, please let me serve you in an active role. I do not wish to become a mere servant again.”

“There’s nothing wrong with being a servant,” I said with a thoughtful frown. When Hope saw that, she winced. “That said, I don’t mind an extra bodyguard. You’ll accompany me at all times, and tomorrow you’ll be training with me and the soldiers. I won’t coddle you. You’ll probably face a lot of snide remarks. It’ll be gruelling and hurt. Are you up for it?”

Her face shone with happiness. “Yes Milord, thank you, Milord.”

“Another thing and that goes for all of you. When we’re in private, especially in a bathroom. I’m Karth, no Milord or sirs or anything like that.”

“Milord, should anyone overhear us, we would be killed,” Hope protested.

“No, I wouldn’t allow it,” I said and turned to the last girl in the room. She had long brown hair, and to be frank I could not see anything wrong with her. That came out wrong. I could not see anything that would mark her as tainted. She looked like a pretty little thing that seemed to fit the bill for what the men in this world were looking for. Though pretty pale.

She curtsied and mumbled her name, followed by a Milord. I had to ask her to repeat it three times before she spoke loud enough for me to hear. Her name became Mary. She started to warm the tub that Saori had just filled.

Without a care in the world, I undressed and sank into the water. It was blissful. I felt a hand touch my shoulder, and energy coursed through my body, relaxing my muscles. Within a minute I was starting to nod off.

The last thing on my mind as I nodded off was that I was somewhat happy that these women were already broken and cowed. Not that it had happened to them, but that it was not me that had to do it like I would need to do with my advisors and soldiers. I could just concentrate on treating them nicely and earn their loyalty.

I found my way back to my chambers, refreshed, and feeling on top of the world. I had instructed Saori to also be around when it was time for eating, because I wanted something non-alcoholic, and more importantly, something I knew was not poisoned. Hope’s former mistress had scared me.

The chamber was filled with people. Sure it was a large chamber, but there were eighteen people in there already. With the addition of me and the four that had gone with me left the room feeling very cramped. I was just glad that it was sparsely furnished. I spotted Nina sitting on the bed with someone who looked like an older version of her. Just with ears that were slightly elongated.

As soon as the door had opened, most of the women there had kowtowed for me. It took me a minute to get everyone up. The three that did not pay me any form of respect were standing in the corner farthest away, and I could immediately see that they were non-human. They seemed slightly taller than the average human, but not by much. What really gave them away were their ears and eyes.

The ears were like you expected of a classical elf: Elongated and pointy. Though, they were not sticking horizontally out from their heads which somehow had become a thing in later years. Their eyes were black, with a coloured iris and a white pupil. A little freaky actually. Okay, a lot of freaky. Though not off-putting, just different. Had a girlfriend who had the white part of her eyes turned black, for cosmetic reasons. She was the one who came at me with a knife.

“Okay, listen carefully,” I said into the silent room. “I want every one of you to relax, I’m not going to hurt you, unless you make me. I’m definitely not going to force you to have sex with me. I’m going to get some papers from my desk, then I’ll talk with you one at a time. Nina, go get a lot of cups or tankards. Saori can produce water for anyone who is thirsty.”

I did as I had said and grabbed the bill of sales and some blank pieces of paper, or parchment, as well as the quill and ink. They all moved out of the way without me having to weave my way there. I placed everything on the small table between the recliners and turned to the elves who stood in the corner. Taking a better look at them, I noticed that one of them was standing in front of the two others, almost protective like. She had seen combat, or at least I thought so.

Her one eye was following my every little movement, and her body looked incredibly tense. She was a smidgen taller than the others, making her as tall as Hope. Her right eye was either missing or shut, with a lot of scarring around the eye socket. It did not look like a clean slash, it looked more like someone had repeatedly stabbed her there. Her left ear was halfway gone. She was beautiful though. All of them were. The fighter had long braided red hair, while the two others had a dark blonde colour, which hung loosely down past their shoulders. Another thing I noticed was that in addition to their serf collars, they also had what looked manacles without a chain on their wrist. They were made from the same material as the collar as far as I could tell.

She must have felt me done assessing her because she took a step forward and looked me in the eye. In broken whatever language the humans in this world spoke, she said, “Me. No fuck them.”

With that, she reached up to slip the shift off her shoulders. She was magnificent, was my only conclusion when the shift pooled at her feet. Her muscles were well-defined and the only fat on her was her breasts which were perky but a bit flat. She could very well have been amazon, and for all I knew she might be.

The two other elves had looked stunned at their companion. They had not reacted to what she had said, but they reacted to her disrobing. They started saying something in a strange language, sounding almost pleading.

The ringing in my ears from the day before returned, and suddenly I understood what they were saying, “—not for us.”

“Stop,” I said and focused on speaking whatever they spoke. They looked shocked at me, and I heard a gasp from Hope who was standing nearby. She was taking her new role as bodyguard seriously.

“You speak our tongue, human?” the fighter spat.

“It seems so. A gift from the Gods, or so the people who summoned me, claims,” I said.

“Summoned?” the elf asked, her eye darting to one of the empty recliners.

“Aye, me and a bunch of other people were summoned to this world to help fight against, well, you.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Something about a Prophecy,” I said. I saw the red-haired elf pale a bit, but the others did not react. I filed that observation away for a later time. “Anyway. That’s not important. Do you three understand the human tongue?”

The two blondes shook their head, while the red-haired one gave the answer I expected, “A little. It was why your man bought me. To act as a translator.”

“Good, you will learn their language, and help your friends to learn it as well, I doubt anyone here but me can speak the elvish language,” I said. “Now to more important things. My name is Karth, I’m apparently going to be a lord or something. I bought you, and you’re now my serfs. If you don’t make trouble, I will never hurt you. And even though you look lovely, and I think we could have fun in bed, I will never force you to sleep with me or anyone else.”

“You promise on your eternal soul?” one of the blondes asked.

“I don’t know if I got one, but I promise,” I said and took one last look at the fighter. “You decide if you want to remain naked or not. I like being all natural as well, and you look good.”

She bent down quickly and got the shift back in place. I released a small sigh. It had been a nice view. “I want to talk with all three of you at the same time.”

They hesitantly moved over to the other recliner, after I had sat down in one. The red-haired elf sat down, marking her as their official leader. I told them my expectations. “I had Linus find someone who knows herbs, because apparently humans in this world don’t mind have smelly breaths and diseases.”

“We noticed,” the red-haired elf said. It was refreshing, these were not broken down like the others. It might mean I would need to assert my dominance, but the constant bowing and scraping were too much. I just wanted to trust them to do a job when I asked them and be loyal.

“The bill of sale lists the two of you as herbomancers, I guess that means you can manipulate plants?” I asked the two blondes. Before they could ask, I noticed another piece of information. “Wow, a rating ten, I’m impressed, it’s definitely the highest I’ve seen or heard of so far. Which one of you is that?”

There were not a lot of differences between the blondes, I thought they might be sisters. However, they looked a lot like the red-haired as well. One of them was a little heavier in the top area than the other. Not that they were big-breasted, their slim physique did not seem to support it.

The one with the lesser bust bowed her head a bit. “That’s me.”

“What’s your name?” I asked, and decided to go for exotic names for them.

“Siphanien,” she replied and I was pleasantly surprised that they had semi-pronounceable names. Even in English, so I chose not to change them.

“Ilmadia,” the other blonde said.

The red-haired went last. “Yathanae.”

“Great, now back to my question. You two can manipulate plants?”

“Yes we can, and we know plenty of herbs for dental care, and other needs,” Siphanien said.

“Good, give me a list, and I will see if we can get the seeds and so on for you to grow it,” I said. They started giving it to me, and I wrote it down. To experiment I tried to focus on writing it in the human language, and I was positively surprised when it came out with other names than what they supplied me with, meaning that it had worked.

The door opened, heralding Nina’s return when I saw a streak run out from underneath the recliner that Yathanae was sitting in. I only caught a glimpse of it but saw it was a mostly black cat. ‘Where the hell did that cat come from?’

Shrugging, I put it out of my mind and continued writing down the list of herbs that they requested. When we finished, I asked Yathanae. “You look like you can fight, would you like to be my bodyguard?”

She hung her head, but not before I saw flashes of anger. “I could only protect you against non-humans, these bracelets make it impossible for us to hurt humans.”

“I won’t ask you to fight against your own kind. However, I hope you will show me how you fight,” I said softly.

“So you can slaughter more of my kin?” she spat. Hope might not have known what was being said, but she understood the tone, and I felt the heat when her hands caught on fire. A clear threat.

“It’s okay Hope,” I said. After reassuring my newly appointed bodyguard, I turned to Yathanae. “Will I use it to fight against other elves? Yes. I won’t lie to you. I don’t know which hold I become lord of, but I will protect it against all enemies. Elves, humans, or whatever. I won’t order you to do it, yet. I hope to show you that despite how lousy your situation seems, it can become something better. And that requires that I live a long life.”

“Humans die so early,” she scoffed.

“I’m told I will most likely live another two hundred cycles since my power rating is twelve.” There were gasps of surprise from the two others when they heard that, and Yathanae looked a little pensive at that.

I pointed at the other healer and beckoned her over. It was a little weird being a room full of people, and none of them were saying much. Even stranger was that every one of them was following even my tiniest movements. The last time I had experienced that, was when Billy the Moron had turned a simple bank robbery into a hostage situation. Not something I liked to remember. Not because of what I did, but because it was a major screw up, and I hated failures.

“Sorry, I did not catch your name,” I said when she was standing in front of me.

“Nathalie, Milord,” the woman said. Up close I saw something I had not seen earlier. Her hair was not black as I had assumed, it was actually a very dark blue, and her pale skin had a bluish tint to it.

“Are you cold Nathalie?”

She blushed and shook her head. “No Milord, thank you for asking, Milord. My ancestors include one of the sea elves, Milord. I hope it doesn’t offend you, Milord.”

“Why would it offend me?”

“Milord, most people hate tainted like me.”

“I’ll never hate you for who your ancestors are, only if your actions upset me,” I said. “Now, I have a question. Can you regrow her ear and eye?”

Yathanae understood enough of what I said and sat there with an open mouth. Nathalie took a quick look at the mangled ear, before replying. “Milord, the ear can be repaired in stages, alas the eye if missing needs to be repaired in one go. I don’t have the power rating to do that, without a lot of manacrystals.”

I switched to elvish. “Yathanae, is your eye missing?”

She nodded with a fierce and angry look on her face. I then said to Nathalie, “Start regrowing her ear and collect as many manacrystals from the others as you can. Tell them that it’s an order from me that they need to be pouring energy into a crystal at all time they’ve more than half their mana pool available.”

“Yes, Milord,” she said with a curtsy. I then translated to ensure the elves understood exactly what was going on. I also ordered the elves to pour all their mana into manacrystals so they could help regrow the eye. They went about the task with enthusiasm.

I dismissed Nathalie and the elves and called the next one forward. Since there were no names, just mancer type and rating, I wrote down their names as they presented themselves. Instead of calling a name, I just called out the type and rating. The first on the list was Saori, but her I had already talked with. The next was a linteomancer with a rating of five.

I found myself lying on my back in a small clearing. I was staring up into a cloudless sky, with the sun shining happily. The ground was soft and warm, and I could hear bird song all around me. Something moved to my left, and I turned to look over. I found myself staring at a doe and her fawn. They looked at me for a second, before going back to eating the grass.

I sat up and I saw someone walking into the clearing. It was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Tall, fair-skinned, slender, perky breasts, rosy lips, and long flowing black hair. It had to reach her lower back at least. The most noticeable thing about her was that she was naked.

I was spellbound, unable to move, as she almost glided through the grass towards me. I was captivated by her eyes that seemed to sparkle like the stars. Her irises the same blue as the sky above. She approached one magnificent step at a time. Closer and closer, until she stood over me.

I opened my mouth to ask who she was, but I found my unable to form any words. She leaned down and placed a finger on my lips. In a voice that sent shivers down my spine, she whispered, “Not yet.”

I awoke from the dream and found myself in the semi-dark just before dawn. I was sitting in one of the recliners, with my feet on the table. A weight was in my lap, and when I looked down I saw the black cat from earlier. It was a little hard to see in this light, but it looked like it was mostly black, but with a white stomach, chest and throat. I reached down and scratched it behind an ear, which started the purring machine that cats often are.

That brought a smile on my face. I had always loved cats, they had brought me much joy through my life. My earliest memory of a cat was one I called Mister Whiskers, despite it being a female cat. I had found her as a kitten when I was about five or so. She lived in an alley next to the orphanage. She was alone in the world just like me. Abandoned.

I snuck milk and food out to her for years, which I stole from the kitchen of the orphanage. In fact, it was the first things I ever stole: Milk. Mister Whiskers brought me much needed companionship to a lonely boy. Despite being orphans themselves, the others were nasty to me because of my size. Growing up I had a lot of baby fat and used glasses. The perfect target for a bunch of orphans to make them feel better about themselves.

After a couple of years, I was surprised when she suddenly had a litter of kittens. The cutest little things. However, the kittens made a lot of noise, and one day Brian and the others found the kittens. They used them as target practice for their homemade slingshots. I managed to chase them away by threatening them with a large branch, but it was too late.

The kittens had all been killed by the blunt force trauma from the rocks hitting them, and Mister Whiskers had been seriously injured, missing an eye, and had trouble breathing. She mewled pitilessly as she licked her dead kittens. I knew what I had to do, and with tears in my eyes, I ended her suffering. I snuck into a garden nearby and buried them beneath an apple tree.

That evening in the mess hall I had gone after Brian and the other kids with a kitchen knife. Unfortunately, the caretakers stopped me before I could inflict any damage or pain, and I was transferred to another facility, which handled troubled kids. Little better than juvie.

I never saw the others again, but I did see Brian once when I was twenty-three. I stalked him for a week before finding the perfect opportunity to pay some revenge for Mister Whiskers. The beating I put on him was brutal and left him paralyzed from the stomach down. I left town the next day, just to be safe. Walked away from two million bank job that had been in the planning for months and was ready to be executed. The revenge was worth every cent.

“Kitty, I need to get up,” I said and lifted the cat up. It hissed a bit at that, but at least it did not scratch me. I put it down and surveyed the scene of my chamber. There were people sleeping everywhere, much to Linus’ continued protestation. The bed was filled after I had threatened them all with the bracer if no one slept there. I was not going to do it, but after ten minutes of them refusing to sleep in the bed, I had enough.

Hope was sleeping in the other recliner, and as soon as I rose from the recliner, she woke up. I gave her a smile. “Good morning, going to find a spot to train, want to join me?”

“Yes, Milord.”

“Too damn early for that Milord crap,” I muttered under my breath and took my cloak from the back of the recliner. After I had put it on, I felt something tugging on it and looked back to see the cat crawling up my damn cloak. I considered shaking it off, but I could not bring myself to do it. Eventually, the cat reached my shoulder where it nuzzled my chin a bit, before it snuck into the hood that I had not put on.

I could feel it move around a bit before it settled down and started to purr loudly. I whispered softly, “Silly kitty.”

Hope looked bemused as we made our way through the minefield that was my sleeping servants. I was looking forward to having her show me some of the combat magic she had learned.