It was like I was in a park. There were even paths paved with cobblestone and a large pond. This park even had clipped grass from the animals grazing all around. There were animals from every place I could imagine and fortunately they were all herbivores.

“Follow me,” The man in armor began walking without looking at us.

In the direction we were now heading I saw actual buildings in the distance. This place was turning out to not be as bad as I was thinking it would be. I just hoped they wore clothes and bathed occasionally.

There were lots of people. They were all either beautiful or… um, unique, including midgets, people with that condition that makes you grow too much hair, and even conjoined twins. They were also all clothed to varying degrees, which was better than nothing. They were also clean. Almost too clean. Everything here was clean from the people to the animals.

Helnion, now awake, was even more fascinated than I was. I don't think she had seen any place this clean and there were so many animals that she could have only heard about. I watched her as she wandered about and got closer looks at the more exotic animals before getting distracted by the next interesting thing.

We arrived at the buildings. There were many of them. All different shapes and sizes. They reminded me of pictures I had seen on Earth of ancient ruins. They even were covered with plants, albeit well-groomed plants. The plant-covered stone buildings could only be described as beautiful. Which was saying a lot, since I never cared about beauty.

We entered the largest building. Inside was even more wondrous than the outside. Despite now being in a building it was almost as if we were still outside if you ignored the walls. Here too plants grew. There were even some animals in here, all tame.

We entered a courtyard that appeared to be in the center of the building. The armored man led us to the center and directed us to sit on some stone benches while we waited.

The fun was about to begin. I would be one of the few that got to meet a Deity. I was not happy about it. It could be worse though. Usui was not a bad god, just one that rubbed me the wrong way. Thinking about being enslaved by Dugin would be much, much worse than Usui.

There was nothing to do while I waited. Helnion was looking around in amazement and, if she wasn't so tired, I imagine she would be all over the place. I too looked around. I had already seen enough of the building so I looked for anything else.

I saw only women here. Like those outside, they were all beautiful or unique. The clothes they wore were also the same. All made with the finest materials and, from what I could guess, they were in the style from wherever they had come from.

A group of women came out of one hallway. They did not have the same feel about them as the other women. Their clothes were not of the same quality and, while still beautiful, were not as beautiful as all the other women I had seen earlier. My best guess was that they were servants or visitors.

I had yet to see any children, not even in the town.

“Are these the girls?” one woman asked the others.

“A Terran girl and another. It would seem so,” another woman said.

“What dreadful condition,” said a third.

One woman stepped out in front of the others and looked at me, “I will not ask how you came to be like this. It is, however, my job to see that we make you proper before Lord Usui sees you.” She took my arm, “If you would follow me.”

I welcomed the opportunity to get new clothes and cleaned up. Not only was I filthy, my clothes and flesh alike were cut and torn. The dried blood didn't help either.

They eventually placed Helnion and me into a small room with some baskets where they asked us to strip. I didn’t enjoy being nude in front of others but it was only women and they probably would strip me themselves if I didn't.

I soon found myself in a room with a small pond and a stream running through it. It must be what passed for a bath around here and in no time I was being scrubbed by the women. Helnion was on her own. I almost envied her for it.

It had been a horrible bath. It felt like they had scrubbed my skin off. They had also cleaned my wounds, well more like scrubbed them. Helnion was once again left alone. Maybe I could ask to switch places with her.

After the bath came grooming. Helnion normally did this for me, but not only had I been gone all summer, it had also been a tiring last few days and even Helnion hadn't touched my hair. Now she practically fought them. I suffered for it. Getting hair untangled is painful when rights to your hair are being fought over.

Finally, I got new clothes. What I got wasn't what I expected. They had prepared a toga for me. Like those of the women I had seen earlier, it was of the highest quality, silk from what I could tell, and was finely handmade. If I got out of here, I could sell it for a lot of money. Helnion got a cotton one piece toga.

“You look much better now,” One woman said, smiling, “I wish I could do something about those wounds.” She put a serious look, “Lord Usui should be ready to see you now. Follow me.”

We walked through the building and entered a room that was larger than most of the others from what I had seen. It was filled with women and in the middle of them was a man like I had never seen before.

It had to be Usui. His extremely long hair gave off a soft glow and there seemed to be a faint aura around him. He was also unnaturally attractive. If he was not Usui then couldn't imagine what it would be like to see that real Usui.

The man saw us as soon as we entered and waved us over. The women whispered among themselves and giggled. Not all of it was directed at me, fortunately.

“Welcome!” he said happily. “I'm Usui and you must be Salis and her sidekick…” he paused at the word sidekick and smiled wryly, “Helnion. Tell me what sidekick means later.” He chuckled and on cue the women followed. “Maybe you'll tell me your real name too. Salis certainly isn't your real name.”

In that moment I noticed something. He wasn't speaking Flaern. He was speaking the language I hadn't heard since I had been on Earth. The weird thing was that his lip movement didn't match his words. Now that I had thought about I realized that servants earlier while speaking Flaern had also had their lip movements off. I wonder what the difference was. I would have to ask him later if I got the chance. For now, I would see what he had to say.

He leaned forward and rested his chin on his hand, “Tell me, do you know why you have been brought here?”

A part of me wanted to stay silent and frustrate him, but I needed to stay on his good side and I also wanted to know as much as possible about my situation. So I replied, “They told me I am now your property because I entered the forest and I would become part of your collection.” I would become one of the women here, probably.

He laughed, “I guess collection is one way to put it, but I prefer to call it getting married to me.”

Get married to him? So this was a harem after all. There was no way I would get married. I wasn't old enough anyway, unless he is a pedophile. I didn't see any young girls here so he might not be one, they grew up, or they just weren't here at the moment.

“I have no desire to become your wife and I'm too young anyway,” I told him straightforwardly.

He laughed again, “You're standing before a Deity and you say something most would be too scared to say. Are you not intimidated by me?”

I would be lying if I said he hadn't intimidated me, he was a Deity after all. But being overcome by my intimidation would not help. As to answering his question, I stayed silent.

“Not going to say? Well, it doesn't matter. You will grow used to me in time and even come to love me. As to being too young, you are right. Children are most beautiful with their innocence and I don't like to take away that beauty. Therefore, I will let you stay here as a guest until you have fully matured and I will then welcome you as my newest wife. I'm doing this even though we both know you are older than you appear, if only on the inside.”

“As I have said before, I have no interest in getting married. Not to anyone. Ever.” I told him the truth. I wanted the least amount of connections to Calorin and wherever we were at the moment.

“Not to anyone?” He looked genuinely shocked. “Marriage is a wonderful thing. Why would you not want something so wonderful?”

I had no reason to explain to him why I never wanted to get married. If he wanted it, he would have to mind probe me or something.

“Alright,” he continued, “What will I do with you then? I won't let you go home.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Why? As you said, you are now part of my collection and while I might have considered letting you go back, as foolish as it sounds, I can't let someone as pretty and unique as you go back to the certain danger you will face.” He looked at my legs. “And I am not the only one that wants you. Terrans never have easy lives and with you showing that you brought knowledge from Terra there will be many that seek you. Both for your knowledge and even to kill you to get rid of that knowledge.”

He was right. I knew even before I had gone to Kein that people would want to exploit me. If I had been sure that I wouldn't have been found in Porra-Kel I might have even stayed there, as unpleasant as that would have been. But that wasn't the case as Pali's arrival showed. So I went with one of the very people I wanted to avoid. But I needed the skills they had taught me to better escape others that would come after.

“I'll take my chances,” I told him finally.

He leaned back, “I'll think about this while you finish healing.”

That was fine by me. But there were some things I wanted to know before I left.

“Can I ask you a few questions before I leave,” I asked.

“Certainly. I'll do all I can to make you feel comfortable.”

“What are you planning on doing with Helnion?” I asked something that needed to be asked.

“Why don't we ask her what she wants?” He looked at Helnion, “So little Helnion, what do you want? Do you want to go home? Do you want to stay here and become a servant?”

Being around a Deity had made Helnion concentrate for once, which goes without saying, and replied immediately, “I want to go where Salis goes.”

“So if she stays here you will too? And if she somehow convinces me to let her leave, you will give up the chance at this wonderful life?”

Helnion repeated, “I will go where Salis goes.”

“Are you satisfied with that Salis?” he asked me.

“If that's what she wants.” Now that I had that out of the way, I had one more question, “I only have one more question.”

“Alright.”

“How did you learn my native language?”

“Oh that? Let's just say it's one perk of being a Deity. If you stay here with me, I might give it to you too.”

It looks like he wouldn't explain in depth. While it was convenient, it was distracting having the lip movement match his words. His offer to give it to me was not tempting either. If I went somewhere where I couldn't understand the language it would be a great excuse to not have to talk to anyone.

Now that I was done talking to him, Helnion and I were separated and taken to our rooms. While it wasn't the biggest bedroom I had ever seen, it was one of the most luxurious rooms I had been in. While it celebrated the beauty of nature like everywhere else, there were plenty of man-made things here too. The bed was large, with a canopy overhead and slightly transparent silk curtains hanging down from it. There was a large bookshelf, albeit empty, a reading chair and desk. All of which looked as if they had been grown and not cut.

The servants were busy with me too. They had brought me a large dinner with plenty of vegetables, fruits, and dairy products, but no meat. They also eventually started bringing books that written in Flaern and the shelf was soon full of many books.

Later I they inundated me with clothes, most of them Romanesque, but also many of the styles popular in the Flaern Nobility. I didn't care so I just let them use me as a dress-up doll and kept what they thought looked good on me. Most of the clothes ended up all white. I ended up choosing one thing. I had gotten sick of all the white clothes people seemed to always choose for me so I chose one of complete black. They joked that I must be in mourning about something, which I was. I was in mourning about being here.