The morning came, as it normally does, and once again Drelt was up before everyone else. Without any need to gather anything, he munched on what remained of his previous day’s dinner.

While he ate, he looked at the room. Drelt then looked at his master, an honorable man beyond any he had met before who even treated slaves like people, sleeping in the bed. Right next to it on the ground, with barely a blanket over him, slept Dorun who wanted to stay close in case someone attacked in the night. A notion that Victor dismissed but still allowed him to worry over.

Along another wall were two roll out cushions on the floor that Victor let him and Alena sleep on instead of the hard wooden floor. They both had a pillow, smaller than Victors, and a warm blanket.

Both in the carts and with his previous owner, Drelt was used to having little to nothing and fighting to an extent for the small bit of comfort that had been allowed.

He had already had better food since he was bought than he ever remembered having in his life before. This was often the fate of someone made a slave before they could have memories otherwise. Especially if it was a slave that didn’t need to be shown off for any reason like many bought by the richest and most influential owners for their looks.

Touching the bubbling on his left shoulder and knee, Drelt smiled as he hoped that today would be the day they both go away. Even if there was some sort of scarring that remained he hoped that his master, who he felt was smarter and more capable than his previous owners, had something planned to save him.

After some more time had passed Drelt noticed his master stir and got breakfast ready for him.

His master had stayed out later than expected the night before and had dinner without them. He had his paper and said he would have dinner for breakfast the next day.

Before going to bed his master had written something in that odd script that, even to his illiterate eyes, looked different when compared to what was written on the signs and papers that he would normally see.

Mostly due to Alena's curiosity, Victor told them what he was writing about as he wrote out the words. Each of the papers had a different short story that he said he wrote because he thought they could fit on one of the single sheets of paper that he had.

Three little pigs, the boy who cried wolf, and sleeping beauty were just some of the stories he wrote down and read. Some were even short enough that they were just a few sentences long. By Victor's own admission some of them were a more simplistic version of the whole story, but even then they sounded interesting.

A couple of them were interesting enough that Drelt wanted to hear them properly when he had the chance to ask. The one he wanted to hear again was the story that sounded, to him, most interesting. It was one that was about someone with an odd name that found a beanstalk going to the clouds and finding a bird that laid golden eggs.

Drelt imagined that if he could find such a bird he could easily free himself, the other slaves that his master had made the offer to, and buy any he found to free. He knew such a thing would never be as if gold could be made that easily it would not be used for money, but it was a nice dream to have while listening to the story.

When Victor finally woke up enough to get his bearings, he found that Drelt was at the side of his bed with the food that had been meant for dinner, offering it to him.

“Breakfast in bed. Normally I used to only get this if I was sick, and even then it depended on how sick I was.”

Taking the offered food, Victor started to eat. It was cold due to being out all night, but he ate it all the same. He thought the meat was now more like a jerky while the fruit was unchanged except for one additional days worth of ripeness.

Victor thought that he might want to figure out how to make something similar to a dorm fridge or cooler. If someone had frost magic and could enchant it onto a box it might work. At least he started to assume that it was possible. Especially if the chill was kept to a minor amount to keep the power source from dying out quickly.

He had heard of people on camping trips underestimating battery or gas supplies for long trips and finding that their food had gone bad without them realizing it.

“So you look like you’re smiling from ear to ear. I take it you’re excited to go see Elly again. If I learn enough I might be able to get that stuff out of you.”

Victor didn’t want to point it out, in case Drelt hadn’t noticed it himself, but he had seen some of the slaves' skin slip off his shoulder already. It reminded him of the stories about leprosy.

Sure he never had a large enough interest in diseases enough to study them, but sometimes things would be unique enough that it would draw his attention. Leprosy was one example, but only enough for a cursory examination.

On the other hand, his favorite bit of historical sickness was the dancing plague of 1518. He wasn’t sure if it was physical or mental in nature but something that could cause so many people to dance themselves to death was certainly beyond normal sicknesses.

What he found especially funny was how the nobles of the time thought building a place to let them dance it out would solve the problem. The result of this was, instead, that it caused it to spread.

They even provided music for them. The logic was that they could just work it out of their system in a more isolated area.

In the end, the problem only got worse as more people started to dance. Likely because of the fact they had a place, music, and so many others already doing it. He imagined it was almost like bait set in a trap that the nobility didn’t realize they had set.

Victor let out a slight laugh as he imagined it happening in a more modern setting. Politicians creating dance clubs for those caught up in this and doing everything they could to make it amazing, only to be surprised that it drew in people who weren’t already impacted by the dance.

Once his mind got back on track, Victor realized that Drelt was especially close and staring up at him intently. Until recently the slave had mostly just stayed in the back of the group and helped where he could but didn’t show any drive.

The sudden desire to do things, to make sure that Victor didn’t dawdle too long and that he had any help he needed was likely from one thing. A desire to be whole again. Or a desire to feel like he had a future again? Victor wasn’t quite sure the best way to put it.

“Alright let me wake one of them up and let them know what’s going on. I’ll leave them some coin for food then we can go.”

Taking a bit of time to wake up Alena, Victor explained what was going to happen and told her that she and Dorun could do as they like so long as they are back before the sun began to set over the horizon. The only stipulation was to not do anything overtly risky. That was mostly for Dorun's sake as he knew the man might try to go out and hunt to earn him some more coin.

With that Victor and Drelt left the Inn, stopping to let the slave grab something handheld from the counter for breakfast. It was a basic sandwich that Victor had convinced the owner would be a good seller for when the tournament starts going strong as it could be eaten on the go and the bread would prevent the person's hands from getting greasy. The innkeeper liked it because she wouldn’t have to buy wooden skewers for people wanting food on the go.

The path to the library was fairly uneventful as the sun had only recently risen past the horizon. Many of the merchants were beginning to set up their stalls or open the doors for customers.

In comparison, the library was already open and everything looked to be set up as expected. The only notable difference was that there was a man that Victor hadn’t seen before sitting at the table with Elioce playing go on the board that had been left behind.

No, it seemed she was teaching him the game not playing it at the moment.

Clearing his throat Victor did what he could to get her attention away from the game. When he finally managed to do so she looked over at him and it was obvious she hadn’t gotten much sleep last night. This was if sleep deprivation looked the same on beastkin's as it did for humans, he reminded himself.

“Oh, Victor you’re early. I told you not to come until the morning.”

A few seconds passed before she noticed the light through the window and she looked at a couple of candle stumps on the table.

“It is morning. I didn’t even realize.”

Standing up she moved over to Victor and handed over a small silver coin.

“For my waning level of professionalism please accept this and leave until just after lunch. I don’t want to inadvertently give you improper information so I require a nap.”

“As I have been talking with a business partner already about the production of the games we talked about I won’t have to meet with him later.”

Looking at the woman there was a lot that he wanted to say. Since coming to this world he felt that he had been whipped around from place to place. In some ways, it felt like some people assumed his decisions weren’t even worth thinking about or that he was just an amusing toy for them to use until they grew bored of him.

Only Alena, Dorun, and Drelt were staying with him, but he couldn’t say that was anything special because they were his property.

Taking the coin, Victor looked at Elioce and then the door.

“Six.”

Elioce looked at Victor. His response had not been what she expected and she ran a couple of fingers over her arms carapace.

“I’m sorry, but six what?”

Victor held up three fingers as he looked at the man behind her. He appeared to be well off based on the clothing bright coloring compared to what he saw most people wearing.

Assuming that he was the business partner she wanted to work with to make the board games, Victor thought she didn’t want him to linger around and risk causing something to go bad with the negotiations.

“What we talked about yesterday. I did what I was asked and got here on time, but you want to delay our meeting. You said I could get three, but for your inconsiderate attitude about our meeting I want it doubled to six.”

It took quite a while for Elioce to realize what Victor was saying, but when she did she did some rapid tapping against her arm with one finger as she looked at him.

“Five not six.”

Victor smiled just a bit and nodded his head rather than answering as he left the library with Drelt following close behind.

After leaving the library Victor and Drelt wandered a bit aimlessly. Victor had told the slave that he was sorry for the delay as the pair tried to figure out what they would do until returning to have the meeting as previously planned.

With a bit of thought, and noticing some on sale at a stall, Victor bought some clean cloth to wrap Drelt's shoulder. He didn’t wish to see any more of the skin slip off or anything to crack and cause bleeding unnecessarily.

While he didn’t know enough to do anything medically, Victor was convinced that it would be better to wrap it up and keep the skin from falling wherever.

Once the wrapping was done the pair, or in actuality Victor, decided to visit Xelebres’ museum.

After paying the two large copper, the pair wandered around looking at the different pieces. Upon entry, Esen’no asked if he wished to speak with either of the artists, to which he said he only wanted to look around at what they made as he had never had the chance to do so at his own pace.

Drelt and Victor split up to look throughout the establishment. While Victor already knew that it was all also for sale, he felt that it had the same feeling as some of the museums he visited growing up.

While he was by no means an art expert he always knew what he liked. There were times that what he liked was well known and by someone famous while other times it was by someone without anything except the one piece that Victor enjoyed. Usually, it was somewhere in between with somewhat or fairly known artists.

He went from one piece to the next slowly. On occasion, he would make a comment about something, usually about the effects that had to be created using tools or supplies that were not anything the artists he knew of could have used.

One piece of art that had a slightly shimmering and smoking effect gave Victor pause. The effects of the paint made him wonder how an artist like Van Gogh would have reacted if he had been allowed to use the same materials for his art that this world had.

While this was happening, Drelt had been seated on a small bench across from a painting. He wasn’t looking at it as he was instead gazing out the window, watching as the sun moved across the sky.

Compared to what he was expecting to happen when he woke up, the art had no draw for him. It made no difference to him that the walls even had art and, while he knew objectively that it looked nice, he couldn’t bring himself to enjoy it as he was so close to seeing something much more amazing.

Seeing his master learn about what was slowly killing him and then using that to cure him was the best display he could imagine. What is the world's best piece of art when compared to the moment that a person experiences their life being saved?

The moment that the midday bell rang, Drelt found Victor as fast as he could and took his arm in his hand, indicating the direction of the door.

“Ah, right it is lunchtime. Let's grab something we can eat while we walk and get to the library.”

With the slight distraction out of the way the pair returned to the library and hit on the locked door until Elioce had woken up and answered it.

“Alright come in, come in. I take it you have the writing for me? I’ll look at them on my own to see if I can figure out some of the way your script works without you. Tomorrow if you want that five percent you will return and read it all to me.”

After being offered the stack of papers she moved to a table and handed Victor some clean paper and something to write with.

“I suggest you take notes as I don’t want to repeat what I am saying. Just know that even with all this information you won’t be able to just cut into him or make a cure. Either choice requires a lot of work to get to a point where it is viable and he might not die from it anyway.”

“He might not…. But his last owner and Alena….. Well, I think Alena said that the bite would kill people and he was going to die.”

“Oh, he still might die,” Elioce said dismissively, “The creature that he was bitten by normally lives in a sort of pack or cluster if you prefer since they are fairly small creatures. Long but certainly small. If he was bitten by only one then it was likely one who was injured, or to elderly to keep up with its pack.”

Elioce went on to explain a lot about the beast that did this, complete with drawings when she could.

The creature seemed to look like it had a body roughly the size of a computer mouse. It was like a kangaroo in shape with scales coating it’s entire body and two large fangs in its oversized mouth.

There was another pair of matching fangs on the tail of the creature that stretched out about as long as a person's arm. It was able to move like a snake and bite down just as easily as it’s main body and would grow back in thirty-three days if cut down to the base.

A cluster was something that was needed for this species as its tail was vulnerable when alone and held most of the poison in it. The tail's poison was more potent when compared to the poison that its mouth had. That poison was weaker but had an additional effect that would paralyze the vocal cords preventing the target from screaming out as it was bitten. Because of this, the cluster wouldn’t need to worry about their meal being heard and rescued as often unless it was a person, and even then it would be less likely.

Normally something bitten by a cluster of these would have been dragged away to their home and allowed to dissolve naturally. That was also because normally they wouldn’t attack people unless provoked. When they did get a person, it was said that it would take five days to dissolve down to just the bone when a whole cluster had gotten them.

For one of their bites how well it did would depend on where it bit and how strong the creature's fluids were.

The shoulder turned out to be the bigger concern of the two bites. Elioce said the leg would have an easier time being amputated since it was farther away from the torso. The death of the person usually would depend on if it destroyed certain blood veins. It also depended on how big the fang was when it broke off in the victim.

Moving onto the physical aspects of the creature Victor asked questions about every aspect of the creature's body. In truth, he only cared about the fangs so he could try to remove them, but he asked about everything he could think of, just in case.

During that time he learned that the tail was considered a delicacy amongst some people who liked the risk of trusting the chef to remove everything that could kill them if prepared wrong. Something that reminded him of pufferfish, another food that Victor had no intent on ever trying even if he got the chance.

After enough time passed Victor had drawn his own version of the creature, but since he was no artist he just traced the one that Elioce put on the table.

Even though it took a while, Victor finally felt he had everything he could get out of Elioce.

Looking over his notes, Victor left with Drelt and thought about the most important things he had learned.

First, the fangs were made entirely of the same fluid, albeit solidified, that would be pumped into a person when they were bitten, meaning that the fang itself would cause the same issue long after it was no longer being used to bite.

The way he had been told they reformed reminded him of stalagmites, or maybe it was stalactites, forming in a cave. Slowly forming as the foul liquid leaked from its source.

Second, he had gotten the shape and style of the fangs. The liquid would make the basic shape of a fang, but it wasn’t perfect. It would often have odd curves and occasionally a spike that would grip the flesh like an arrow to make it harder to pull out.

Of course, the size was fairly constant as they weren’t especially large despite the foul nature of the creature's bite. No bigger than a large toenail clipping was apparently the largest size one would be able to expect from a found fang.

There was one informational tidbit that Victor was unable to get because it was an unknown.

How long a person would be mute when the fang was removed was something that nobody was sure about. Even with the potions, magical cutting, and magical cures, there wasn't any process that didn’t have at least the rare outcome of the person never being able to speak again.

It seemed that the ones most likely to recover first were those who used the potions while those least likely were those lucky enough to survive without anything being done, although only about one in five people survived that way when they were only bitten by one of the creatures and nearly none survived when bitten by two. From what she knew there were only three people who ever did and all of them lost limbs as a result.

Regardless of what he had been told, Victor thanked Elioce and stayed long enough to tell her the story about the three little pigs, reading it directly off the paper, before he left with Drelt.

Once they were out of sight of the library, Drelt hugged Victor again and pointed to the spots on his body that were bubbling slightly and gave a thumbs up with pleading eyes.

“Don’t worry, I just want to get one quick thing before we do this since the fangs are very dangerous and….. I’m not completely sure this will work but just know this is me doing everything I can to help you.”

As they walked Victor went to the first stall that he saw that had pouches for sale and bought one. Without knowing how the fangs would be he wanted to have a place to hold them and nothing else. With how long they could linger in a person's body he imagined they were quite dense and didn’t want them to fall on the ground and find someone stepped on them.

Once the small pouch had been bought, Victor put a hand on Drelt's shoulder. He imagined the fang in every way he could. The size, shape, texture, and weight as best as he could. He thought of how Drelt was his and how that meant the fang within him was his as well. If he bought the product as is, it only made sense that anything within it was considered his as well.

His mind slowly got the image and the assumed location of the fang and once he had done everything he could think of he did as he always did. He thought of how he wanted it safely stored in his card, specifically card number two.

All at once, an impact felt like it tried to erupt from within Victor's body, but nothing physically seemed to change except for sudden and sharp pain that reminded him of the pain that Elya inflicted on him. Unlike hers, however, it didn’t go away and lingered throughout his body.

Taking out his cards, Victor looked at them both quickly. Card one still indicated that it had the stiffening magic like before, while the second one had been labeled and showed the picture of a kyvak fang.

Seeing the fang in the card, Victor removed it and placed it directly into the pouch. He then moved to put a hand on Drelts knee, planning to do the same with the other fang. While trying to picture the second fang, Victor felt the pain spike and a wave of nausea made itself known. He was about to try to remove that one as well, feeling too stubborn to stop. A sharp pain that felt like someone put a nail into his head with a nail gun stopped him as he let out a loud shriek of pain.

Victors vision was suddenly clouded and all of his senses muffled. The card still blank as nothing had been placed within it. This, of course, wasn’t something that he noticed as he passed out.

Seeing his master in such a distressing situation, Drelt took him and carried him into the nearest place he thought to think to find where he would be allowed to sit.

The establishment was a tavern that refused to let them at a table unless they bought a meal of some sort. Hearing this Drelt took out some coins that he had on him and pointed between himself and Victor.

Counting the coins the barmaid left a couple behind, “I’ll see what this much will afford two people.”

Letting out a silent sigh Drelt made sure that Victor was seated and leaning forward to let him rest on the table.

While it wasn’t much he already felt the pain in his shoulder was lessened and he could only imagine that his body would work past whatever remained. He had heard that there would be scarring with how long he had been living with it, but that didn’t matter much to him.

As he sat there trying to care for his master who seemed like he was in something between a drunken stupor and a sleep-deprived state, Drelt looked at the others sitting at the table.

The table was set up with eight chairs that people could sit on. All of which had a back that, instead of being a flat board for backs to sit against, had a section missing in a curved fashion. This was something any establishment with enough people that had tails would accommodate since the tails could easily slide into them and allow the chair to be used by anyone. The only real hindrance, which was minimal, was that they had to sit down from the left side since none of them were designed to do it from the right.

The only time this caused trouble was at a table where just left of the chair was against a wall, but this was dealt with by the people with a tail sitting anywhere else that was available.

Of the six remaining chairs, three of them had been occupied.

Two were filled by what appeared to be a man and a pregnant woman, both beastkin's although of different races since the man had fur and the woman had scales. The remaining chair was occupied by a face that he recognized.

Unsure of how to react to the familiar face of the woman across from them, Drelt just waved his hand a bit until, eventually, he got her attention.

When she first looked at him, Doliy's eyes went a bit larger and looked away and suddenly the tavern went silent around him as she swiftly moved into the chair next to him.

____

It had been several days since Doliy had returned with Ruuz and earned her freedom. The earring that was expected to have only been removed after fifty years or her death was no longer in her ear. However, the hole that it left behind let anyone who saw it have suspicions about her past and would take time to heal.

While there were ways to cover this up, they were often temporary and letting them naturally heal took time. It was also true that sometimes people who weren’t slaves had holes in their ears, but usually, they were done by eccentrics with enough money or status to not worry about the consequences.

The money she had got in addition to her freedom was not a fortune, but she had been allowed to keep the excess money that she hadn’t spent retrieving Ruuz. Admittedly this was because there wasn’t a way to verify if she had used it all or not.

After six years of slavery, Doliy was having a hard time adjusting once again to freedom.

She was budgeting every small quarter copper coin for the time being while she had been looking for work. Thanks to her magic she was able to find something pretty quickly but found out just as fast that the work wasn’t going to be consistent.

While she had only heard Victor say it, the phrase silence is golden was the best way that she could explain her job to others.

She would be placed in a specific area and make it so no sound could leave a certain area, but still allow it to enter just in case. She had lucked upon a middle-class noble discovering her power during a loud time on the roads where the woman happened to get within her bubble of silence.

Because of that the noblewoman hired her for a period of time and paid her enough to live off of for five days just from that short job. The next day she was hired again for the same job and received double her previous pay, but since then there had been no further contact from the woman.

Since then Doliy had only been able to get short single day work that was a lot harder and paid a lot less for the effort involved. It was enough to live on and save a little after, but she knew that the hole in her ear meant that she was likely being taken advantage of.

It was why many people would try to find a way to fill the hold in their ear or, as Doliy had been doing her best to do, use their hair to cover it. The problem was that some people had already known that she was enslaved to the Vinulette family until recently. Leaving slavery was often hard and many who had been enslaved found themselves going back to the life instead of making one of their own, but she refused to be another one of those people.

If everything went as planned she only needed enough to survive until the tournament started. After that she could manage and leave here to find a place that didn’t know her already.

Every year this event brought in a lot of people who saw it as an opportunity to commit crimes and make massive profits as a result. Before her slavery, Doliy was one of those people.

Today she had managed to find someone who was wanted. It wasn’t someone who was high on the priority list, but someone who had a reward for the arrest regardless. The reward was a fairly good one, but as it was a lower priority the soldiers and guards weren’t actively looking out for her or, in many of their cases, didn’t know she was wanted.

The woman wasn’t someone who used magic beyond the most simplistic life ones but was still able to hide. She was thin and without any wig, makeup, or nice clothing was easy to mistake for a young man or older boy. Someone who, with a quick outfit change or use of cosmetics, had learned to be a different person as easily as they could be themselves.

Because of this skill, she would seduce both men and women if she was able to. If she knew about their preferences ahead of time she would adjust it and speak or act differently in addition to the change in her physical appearance.

After the seduction, she would go with her target and drain them of their funds and, on the rare occasion, kill them.

Surprise, however, was something that could defeat most people and Doliy proved that once again by using her silence and some rope to bind the woman before she was noticed.

In her mind this proved that despite how people say sight is the most important, being unable to hear something could be just as terrifying when you’re someone's target.

The actions were so practiced that it barely took longer than the blink of an eye for her first limb to be bound enough to be a hindrance and only slightly longer to bind her properly.

Bringing her in for the reward was much harder than the capture. A surprise could help with the start, but after that, the bounty began to struggle like a cornered beast. Regardless of this, she managed to bring her in and only had a slight bruise on one of her legs as retaliation.

When she left the guards station, Doliy had a few large silver coins and several small silver coins added to her funds. To celebrate, she found a tavern that wasn’t overly crowded and ordered one of the better meals that they had to offer.

While waiting for her meal Doliy put a small bubble to hinder, but not prevent, sounds from getting to her so she could think better. The barmaid said that the cook was putting the last of the work on her meal since the last roast had been run out earlier in the day. Shortly after this, she noticed something across her at the table.

She had picked what was, at the time, the most empty table, only having a beastkin couple at it. Since then two other people had sat down. One she couldn’t make out because his head was on the table and one who eventually drew her attention.

One of his fucking broken slaves.

The fact Doliy saw Drelt and who she assumed was Victor could easily be explained as some sort of a coincidence, but she refused to let herself accept that as a fact. In her life, she had realized that coincidences did happen. In fact they happened quite often. They were a daily occurrence if you looked past yourself.

Finding just enough coin on the ground to cover what you lacked in a purchase. Passing someone just as you were thinking of them. Saying the same thing as someone else at the same moment.

Or, like Doliy was experiencing now, randomly finding someone you thought you would never see again passed out across the table from you.

Because despite them happening every day a coincidence was something she didn’t trust. Not that it stopped her from moving closer to the pair and asking what was wrong with Victor to the slave who she forgot couldn’t talk.