The next day was interesting. While the cleaning wasn't too bad of a punishment, my time with the other maids proved to be the real highlight of the day. I could tell that my actions from the day before had irritated them, though they kept it to themselves. The thing most interesting to me was that they were not sure about how to treat me. They knew that Usui wanted me to be his wife and wanted to treat me with respect, but they knew I was in the middle of a punishment and that they were expected to treat me more harshly. Trapped in this duality they would treat me like a low-class servant and in another moment slip back to treating me like I was their master.

I had worked hard. The mess from the day before had been cleaned already, so I did deep cleaning. I quickly found out how many pots were in the kitchen, how many clothes Usui's wives went through, and where the chamber pots needed to be emptied. Strangely, I never saw Helnion once throughout the day. Had she even come back or were they just keeping us away from each other?

The day was now almost over. I was tired and my knees ached. I ignored this and went to Usui's room. Here I would finally find out what would happen to me.

“You look like you worked hard today,” Usui said, his smile back on his face. “I expect you didn't learn any lessons from today, but an example needed to be made, regardless.”

He was right that I hadn't learned a lesson from my punishment today. I would gladly risk another day doing hard cleaning for the sake of my mission.

“I know you don't like idle talk so I'll get right to the point. What will happen to Salis? I have come up with two options. The first is obvious, you will stay here and become my wife when the time comes. Since we already talked about this, it would be a waste of time to talk about it anymore.

This leads to your second choice. Your second choice will be a test. If you can overcome this test, I will let you go. But what is this test, you ask? It will be to help a dear friend of mine. Well, maybe not friend but acquaintance. You see, Kel has been having a bit of overcrowding problems in one of his realms. He has asked the rest of us Deity if we could help. Mostly, the rest of us Deity like to stay as far away from Kel and his realms as possible. Even Dugin leaves him alone.

Until now I've had no reason to answer Kel's call for help, but I think this is an excellent opportunity. If you can help Kel with his problem, then I will let you go. I will warn you. There are many dangers and you probably will die if you go.

Now that you know your options what will you choose.” He finished.

Stay here and live a thousand years in luxury married to a Deity, fawning over him, or certain death. I really must be stupid, but I didn't want the life he was offering. What would I do for a thousand years anyway? I had a hard enough time now fighting off boredom.

“Is Kel so bad?” I asked Usui.

“I get depressed just being around him,” His smile left his face for a moment as he thought about it.

I wished I could laugh. The reason Usui didn't enjoy being by Kel was that he was depressing? Well, he was the Deity in charge of the afterlife. Having to deal with dead people… Yeah, I could see a person like that as depressing.

“I'll take my chances.”

Usui sighed. “I was afraid of this. Such a waste. Such a rare physically complete Terran sent off to die.” He shifted in his seat, “Now that we have decided I will go over the details tomorrow.”

He dismissed me.

I was glad that he hadn't sent me off to Kel right then. If I was to face certain death, I wanted to at least get another night of sleep.

***

It was hopefully the final day here at Usui's realm. I had been brought back to his chamber and, since he wasn't here yet, rested on one of the many cushions.

Since Usui wasn't here, the hordes of women were gone too. Aside from myself, I saw Helnion, a few maids, and a depressed-looking girl two or three years older than Helnion. No one spoke, although Helnion happily hummed a song while doing something to my hair.

Usui came after about an hour and a half. He didn't look happy. I didn't need to think about why. He didn't even speak to any of us for a few minutes before sighing and coming to me.

“Will you not change your mind?” He said. I said nothing. “No? Well, let's get this over with. First, I want to introduce you to someone else I'm sending with you.”

Usui nodded at one servant, who brought the depressed-looking girl over. Now I knew why she was looking depressed. She had to come with us to our supposed deaths.

He looked at the girl with sadness. “This is Perrinu. Like you, some of my followers rescued her. She is one of the last of her people so I wanted to at least preserve one of her line. Unfortunately, she says that she cannot live a life of luxury when the last of her people are still being hunted.”

The girl repeated the name and said something in a language I didn't recognize. If her language didn't give away how foreign she was, her honey-colored hair and blue eyes were unheard of in the continent Flaern was on.

“I would make her a servant, but she was too depressed to do anything. I had no idea about what to do with her until you came along, Salis. You see, I believe neither you nor your “sidekick” are completely qualified to handle Kel's task and I think Perrinu has that something you two are missing.”

“What is our task exactly?” I asked.

“I will leave the full explanation to Kel. But first I would like to give you some supplies before we go. You will need them. Just don't expect me to give you any great object of power.”

We all walked to a different part of the building. I hadn't been inside this room before and wished I had found it before. It was filled with anything and everything related to weaponry and magic and there was lots of it.

“I don't like this room,” Usui said when we had entered. “But with Dugin around we have to have something to protect ourselves with.” He walked to a table, “I have asked my servants to prepare some things you will need and some others to choose from here.”

He picked up a large ornate wooden box three latching drawers and had straps and padding on the back. “This I got from Melche. Only the Deity of Magic could make this wonderful thing. You should be thankful to her because without this you would starve to death.”

We would starve to death? So were we going to go somewhere that didn't have access to food? I guess I was fine with that if he was providing the means to give us food.

He continued, “By placing something in this drawer it can we can access it from an identical set of drawers here, and this big drawer on the bottom is the most important.” He opened it. “It will have food and water placed in it at designated times of the day so keep an eye on it.”

He closed the large bottom drawer and opened the small drawer in the middle. “This is your chamber pot. Kel doesn't want the place you are going to to be contaminated so be sure to use it or he might not let you go.”

He didn't laugh like I thought he would so he might be serious about this. Now the only problem was that it was unsanitary to keep the chamber pot right next to the food.

Usui closed the middle drawer and opened the top drawer. “This drawer is for whatever I feel like.” He laughed this time.

This was an amazing tool he was giving us. Since there were three of them we wouldn't have to share one, which made things easier. The only problem I could see with this was that it was big and bulky. It would be worth any discomfort though.

“The next item is something also made by Melche. Only she doesn't know that I took them from one of her storerooms millennia ago.” He picked up a silk bag and pulled out a white ribbon with Melche's symbol on it. I had seen one of these on everyone's neck here. There was also the question of how he had stolen so many without Melche noticing. “These wonderful things were the answer to the language problems I had. Even though I enjoy the diverse languages from around the world it is a bother when your servants can't speak the same language and teaching them takes time…” He was immortal, why did he care how much time it took to train a servant?

Usui handed one to each of us, which we all put on our necks. I immediately felt it tighten around my neck and when I tried to loosen it I found it wouldn't come off.

Usui laughed. “Did I forget to mention that Melche is the only one that can take these off? Well, dying lets them come loose too.”

He knew me too well already. I probably would have never put one on if I had known it wouldn't come off without Melche's help. At least it was useful.

Strangely, all the ribbons had matched the colors of the wearer. I couldn't see mine, but Helnion's was the exact color of her magical energy. The new girl's had also changed colors.

Usui stood behind the table now. “I know you and your "sidekick,”” he spoke to me, “have been trained. I know you still have some weapons and tools Salis, but Helnion does not. On this table I have some things for you to choose from. Most of them are weapons and none of them will be like your sword if that is what you were hoping for.”

If he had prepared weapons for us, then we were going some place dangerous. I still had my sword and somehow my poleaxe, but I didn't have my crossbow anymore and I wanted another one or at least a bow. Helnion would also need some things to protect herself. While she knew magic pretty well, she wasn't reliable with it. While she wouldn't be much help with a sword or bow, it would be better than nothing.

“Lord Usui,” The new girl said, the ribbon helping me understand her now, “I cannot fight. I will not fight. I have seen too much bloodshed.”

“I never expected you to fight, Perrinu,” Usui said gently to her, “I do not want to send you with these girls but I do not believe that they can finish their task without you. Not only will they do the fighting for you if needed, helping them will lead to your return to Calorin.”

“Is there not another way?”

“There is no need to worry. It will be dangerous and there will be fighting, but I think it will be something you can look back on and be proud about.”

The girl, Perrinu (I would have to remember that if I would be stuck with her), said nothing else.

During their discourse Helnion had approached the table and was eyeing a sword suspiciously. She had never had good luck with weapons and didn't enjoy handling them, but she listened when it was important and she must have realized how much she needed to arm herself.

“Don't worry,” I told her, “I'll let you train with me.”

Helnion backed off a little when I said this. She knew how hard I was on myself and others when I sparred. She had seen how bad my bruises could be and how bad my opponent could get if they were less skilled than I was.

I let Helnion go back to her scrutinizing of the weapons and I looked too. After a quick look over I saw that there wasn't much variety. There weren't any crossbows so I would have to choose a bow. Everything else wasn't of interest to me since I already had a sword and poleaxe and there were no magic crystal of any kind.

I looked more closely at the bows. While I preferred a crossbow over a bow for its ease of use and penetrating power, bows had longer range and could arc over things.

The bows were all well made. They had been made to look like they had just been taken off of a tree. This didn't seem to take away from their usability and I soon had one picked out along with a few quivers of fine arrows.

Helnion had finished picking her things too. I doubt it had taken her long and that she just picked out something at random. They were all fine weapons, so it probably didn't matter what she chose because she would be equally bad.

I then noticed that the new girl Perrinu hadn't picked up anything and was just standing next the door looking at the floor. I knew she didn't want to fight, but she would get in the way if she didn't have a weapon. Even if she wasn't good with one, it would still help. Since I knew I would already carry a lot of things, I just grabbed a small dagger to give her later and if she didn't take it, oh well I had another dagger.

“Finished?” Usui said after I had picked up the dagger and went to Helnion. “I no longer have anything else to say to you so go back to your rooms and get your things and a few changes of clothes then meet me back in my room.”

Usui left, as did we all.

It didn't take me long to get my things. I never had taken most of the items out of my bag and I always took my sword with me, which no one seemed to notice, and since I wouldn't be coming back here I changed into fresh clothes, my black ones, then grabbed a change of clothes and put them in my bag. I also put on my armored bracers. If it would be dangerous, I wanted them on.

Laden with my now more than ever bulging bag, sword, poleaxe, bow, quivers, and magic box I set off for Usui's room. I would have to figure out how to carry all of this stuff… I was too small. Even Helnion would have a hard time carrying it all. Still, I somehow made it.

Everyone was already there. Usui laughed when he saw me, and Helnion looked at me curiously. She was probably wondering how I carried it all here. As for the new girl, forgot her name again, she was sitting quietly and said nothing.

When Usui had finished laughing he said, “How are you planning on taking all of that with you? Just because you made it here doesn't mean you will be able to carry it around like that everywhere.”

I didn't answer him and walked over to Helnion. She looked at me curiously but said nothing. I put everything I was holding down and picked up her magic box and put it on her. I then placed my bag on top of her box and tied it on. Helnion didn't have much, so it was the best place to put it. Helnion seemed to be happy to help me. She always did. Should I feel bad about taking advantage of her loyalty?

Now that Helnion had helped with my bag, my load was manageable. It was still a lot for someone of my age, but all the training I had gone through hadn't left me weak.

“Alright, now that you have seemed to have solved that problem,” Usui said after seeing what I had done. “We will leave as soon as the rest of you have your belongings ready.”

Perrinu and I strapped our boxes on, and Helnion and I strapped on our weapons.

We were now ready to see Kel. He had a different realm than Usui, obviously, and we would have to travel the same way we had come here. Deity sure had it nice being able to jump from place to place in an instant.

And just like that we left and were there.