Diana sat on the park bench in the city of Pas’en. A tree waved lightly back and forth in the breeze, it was a thin thing, but with a large round green head at the top and a pale grey trunk. It provided her with some shade from the sun, and the grass beneath her feet was soft and soothing.

She dressed ‘not’ to stand out today, with simple green and black shirt and pants, as if she were a common person and not the most expensive courtesan ever to be sold in the city of her mistress. It was a deliberate choice on her part to dress this way, she wanted to be little noticed, to have time to think.

“Freedom.” She touched the bronze collar around her throat. “I could really just… walk away? From Kaiji? From mistress? From… everything? With a house and money and… what?” Diana tapped her fingers on her thigh and asked herself a question that shook her to her core.

“What do I do… without them? From her, I have power... but without that, I am powerless. I am still me, I could with wealth, charm, and beauty, perhaps I could have it again. But for what?” Diana looked up from the grass she’d been staring at without seeing it and surveyed the passing people.

Before her loomed a chasm so broad and deep it seemed there was no other side, and no bottom below. Just one step away from her life of service. ‘What purpose do I have, if not… that? Can my life even have meaning if I walk away from them? If my parents had lived… I’d have just been a marital prize. By now I would have a husband and children and… what? A few slaves of my own to make things go easier. Kaiji killed them as traitors and made me her servant to spare my life… but now here it is. I can have my life all to myself and that’s more terrifying than being under the Duchessa’s power.’

Diana turned it all over in her head, ‘I can go free… or I can stay at her feet. Can I have a life without her purpose? Am I OK not seeing Kaiji anymore?’ She almost laughed at that, ‘She cut my mother’s throat and had my father killed, that should be easier to answer than it is. Still, she raised me and gave me everything… and she very clearly cares about me… on the other hand, if I go, there’s nothing saying I can’t still see her. I just won’t be property anymore.’

She watched the people with and without collars walking past, neither seemed all that different than the others, all had tasks to do, all had their eyes forward with intent to do them. ‘So that’s what it comes down to, isn’t it, Diana?’ She asked herself, ‘With her ‘Starlings’ I could be one of the most powerful of women, but along the way I’ll seduce whoever she tells me to. Or I can seduce whoever ‘I’ want to, whenever I want to, and maybe do just… something, whatever ‘I’ want to do.’

The argument went back and forth, back and forth, Diana’s hand went often to the collar around her throat and then back to thoughts of the offer she was given.

Her last assignment came to mind, Sado’s desperation, his futile hope that his mistress would return his love for her, and what she did to disrupt Hanak’sen for her mistress, and as she thought of it all, another option came to mind, and resolve hardened like the ice of the distant north.

‘Yes, I will present that to her instead.’ Diana thought, and a clever little smile began to trace over her face.

When Sado entered the tent of his mistress, she barely noticed he was there. At least as far as he could tell, she had her eyes down over a document on her table, but if she was reading it, he didn’t think it looked that way. “My lady?” He said tentatively, unsure of whether to kneel or salute, he chose to kneel.

“What is it, Sado?” Nua asked without looking up.

“I was just wondering, are you… are you going to eat? We have won a great victory today, the first truly big job of the Breakers, and it is a complete win. Your reputation is secure. This is a reason to celebrate… isn’t it?” He asked with reticence.

“Has the plunder been divided?” Nua asked.

“Yes, my lady. Every soldier’s lot has been tallied, the average soldier will make as much as fifty silvers.” Sado recounted, “All that remains is for you to declare the top performers, and…” He stopped, she clearly wasn’t paying much mind to him.

“My lady…” Sado stood, approached, and knelt at her side. A hesitant hand went up, it went out and back several times before it rested on her knee. Part of him waited for the blow to fall, or a snarling threat, but it didn’t come.

Instead, to his surprise, her hand fell on his and she turned her eyes toward him. “I’m fine, Sado. Just thinking over some things. I have a great deal to do. You were saying?”

“Ah, yes, mistress. The fires are lit, the food is ready, everybody is assembled and waiting for you to declare the ones who will be choosing a loved one to set free.”

“I see.” Nua stated. “Tell me something, when the estimated values were named, did any of my soldiers speak of buying their freedom?”

Sado thought it over, cheers had been plentiful, goading and joking and demands that the most successful buy drinks for one another were common. But as he thought about it, he had only one answer. “None, mistress.”

To his relief, Nua cracked a smile at that. “Why do you think that is?”

Sado didn’t hesitate with that one. “They love you. They love you with a passionate devotion that no ruler would not envy.”

“Do they?” Nua asked.

Sado clutched his mistress’s hand and held her gaze, “Yes! My lady you visited the wounded and spoke to them as if they were your beloved sons, you kissed a slave’s forehead as if you were his own mother praising his bravery. Word has spread like wildfire, nobody wants to be anywhere but beneath your banners. You bring victory and hope to men who thought they would die without meaning… they will follow you everywhere, even if you set them all free. Hope is a stronger collar than iron, and because of me… before you, they had none.”

Nua took that in silently. “Thank you for that, Sado. I hadn’t planned on joining them for dinner but… very well.”

She rose, but Sado didn’t move aside, kneeling where he did, he blocked her in. “My lady, one more thing?”

“Yes?” She asked.

Sado let his head hang while the words came out, but he spoke as clearly as he could, no word carrying a hint of doubt. “If it's the fact that you’re using their lives for your own goals that bothers you, please, don’t let that weigh on you as it does. I’m not saying forget it, but… your goal, your intent, you can’t get there without losses. I am not a Prince anymore, but I haven’t forgotten what it meant. I had to spend lives like merchants spend coins. If you take care of them, do your best for them, prepare them as much as possible to spare them what you can? They will follow you, and we won’t resent what has to be done. It’s the way of the world, treasure us, mourn us, but don’t let the weight of our loss drag you down like an anchor. If that happens, then it will all be for nothing in the end.”

Nua put a hand on his head and managed a genuine smile that he could not see. “I wish I hadn’t treated you so badly for as long as I did. You really are a good human. You’re also wiser than people, including Kaiji, give you credit for.”

“Th-thank you, mistress.” He stammered and stood up. His face flushed briefly by the praise, he stepped aside.

Nua left the tent with greater contentment than she’d entered it, night was settled over the land like a blanket over a bed, and near a great central location in the camp, the smell of roasting meat was wafting, salivating mouths however, were not nearby.

Instead they stood between rows of torches on poles as long as a spear. At the front of the formation, Kaiji and Onimeus waited between two long torches, and even from where she approached, Nua could see they were looking for her.

Sado took his position between the pair and the massed ranks at the center where the core twenty-five stood before thousands more in turn formed a long rectangle many ranks deep.

Nua went around the long rows to her rightful place at the head. “Today you fought, today you won! Because of your efforts today, word will spread to all the southern city-states, that Komestrans on the field are to be feared!”

Roaring throats and pounding weapons against shields or halberds against the earth greeted her words.

When it began to die, Nua continued. “Soon you will begin the march back to my estate. There you will pack your things, there you will pack what families you have, and there you will be given seven days of rest… and then… we march to Komestra! You are going back at last!”

The roar that split the sky was even greater than the first, and where the torches lit up faces, many were the tears of happiness that caught the dancing firelight that fought against the darkness of the world around them.

“There may be more to be done! I cannot promise that everyone who lives and stands here now, will see that day. But I can promise that only death will keep me from my promise to you all!” Nua’s voice carried front to back, pushed by the priestly arts that caused her eyes to give off a golden glow. She recalled what Sado said to her, and a moment of inspiration struck.

“My children are going back home! Only a fool will bar your way there!” Nua yanked her dagger from its sheath and held it aloft above the torches that lit her up like a demon in the night, and she swore their roars would wake the people of Kai’sen if they got any louder.

Only when it died down did she proceed further. “Now… for the standouts for this battle. Onimeus! Sado! Vargas! You among my twenty-five did the most for this victory. “Sado remained at my side, tearing through scores of enemies like they were paper dolls and he was a pair of scissors! Vargas sent men fleeing in terror of his blade, and I saw him end no fewer than ten lives by himself! Onimeus, his strategies and countless hours of training saved more lives than any ten swords here! Each of you has earned the right to set one person free. But there is more than this…”

Nua let silence hang for a moment, “The twenty-five are elites among elites, armed with equipment the likes of which most can’t dream to possess, and holding skills above and beyond the realm of the common man. Therefore I am extending my reward, your squad leaders will be submitting names of top performers, and from those I will select three who stand among the finest examples of the Breakers. These will, in addition to choosing someone to be freed, be awarded improved armor and weapons as a reward for their bravery in service. As to those who died… a moment of silence.”

“Bow your heads.” Nua ordered, and the collective clinking of armored fingers folding together and chins touching chests sounded briefly.

After the moment of silence, she spoke up again, “Those they left behind will be provided for at the expense of the Breakers funds, let no one who goes into battle, fear that their fall will doom those they leave behind. I will protect the beloved of the dead, just as I armor the living.” Nua promised with a catch in her voice that carried all the way to the back.

“Aiwenor!” Her name was a wild chant that endured for minutes while the wind sent her banners to flapping proudly above their heads.

“For now… feast! I must leave you for a short time, but I will return in a few days. Rest here, protect yourselves, and when I come back, we will go back to set the world right again!” Nua ordered, and that brought some dismayed talk about their ranks, which Nua promptly cut off by stating simply, “Dismissed!”

She looked over to Onimeus. “I will leave the camp and my soldiers to you, I have somewhere else to be.”

“My lady…?” Onimeus asked with reticence.

“Before you even ask… I am going to Da’nak. Queen Vexia has expressed a desire to meet me, it’s only a few days' ride from here, so there is no better time than now. I leave everything in your hands until I return.” Nua said and smacked her fist over her breast in salute.

He returned it hastily, “You won’t go unguarded, I trust?” Onimeus pressed, but before Nua could answer, Sado approached and said at the same moment as the demon-elf, ““Like I would ever allow that!””

“I would be whipped a hundred times first.” Kaiji declared with her solid red eyes reflecting the fire so clearly that it was as if the flame burned within her blood red gaze.

“I would rather be whipped a thousand times than let her go unguarded.” Sado declared, one upping his former advisor.

“It’s an official visit, do I really need a ‘guard’ for that?” Nua asked.

“Yes!” All three urgently declared at once.

“Mistress… you know I can’t let you ride off alone… I just… I can’t. Not again, not ever again. It was hard enough just to let you meet with a client who hired you.” Kaiji gave a vigorous denial and clutched at Nua’s hands.

“I agree with Kaiji, mistress, Queen Vexia has a reputation. They don’t call her the Queen of Vexation for nothing.” Sado advised, “You will not go alone unless you kill us both where we stand.” He declared with absolute defiance.

Finally, Nua threw up her hands, “Will no one save me from this abundance of loyalty?” She mockingly exclaimed.

“No one here.” Kaiji winked, “I’ll get the horses.”

“Come back safely, mistress. If you don’t, we will come after you.” Onimeus said without the slightest hint of humor.

Nua didn’t promise him, she didn’t see the need. But as Kaiji brought their mounts over by the reins, she replied, “I believe you.” Before thinking, ‘And that makes me for some reason, very happy.’

However, the grim thought came to her as well, ‘I either will, or won’t, and in a world like this, who can say either way?’ She then mounted and spurred her horse onward, and began to leave at a slow trot, with Sado taking his place at her left hand only a moment after Kaiji took up her position to Nua’s right.