Freyjin sat opposite to Priceless and made her report for the day. “Solution ate some.”

Priceless turned faintly green.

Freyjin let that pass as she continued, “The worst of them, nobody who would be missed. Diana’s Starlings helped lure a few more to some vicious beatdowns using some of the Komestran slaves we kept back for security here, and told them to leave the city. Oh, and a messenger dropped this off today.” She took the document from her pocket and laid it in front of Priceless.

“It’s from the Prince.” Freyjin gave a very large grin to her. “Approving your public works projects. Barely a day, and you got an answer, you must have been convincing.

Priceless blushed, “How hard is it to get a man to support you in making him look good?”

“Alright, that’s fair.” Freyjin replied with a shrug, “Still though, this will make Lady Aiwenor very popular. How soon will you begin?”

“Since I have this? Tomorrow. By the time our mistress comes back, Pas’en will have new fountains, new homes for workers with low rent, and more. The Prince will be pleased…” Priceless said, but didn’t seem relaxed.

“Is something wrong, Priceless?” Freyjin asked gingerly.

“Just the smell from that criminal they killed yesterday in Diana’s office. I understand why they did it, but I can still smell the fear and flesh…” Priceless said and shuddered.

“They used magic to clean it, you’re imagining things.” Freyjin waved her hand to dismiss the statement, and Priceless nodded a little.

“You’re probably right… but I can’t bear anyone’s pain, I got mad enough when I was a prisoner, but when it came down to it, I couldn’t watch mistress hurt the one who hurt me. I hate seeing anyone suffer, and hearing or smelling it is no better. I understand why they did it, I understand how this world works, I was at the bottom for long enough, but somehow I can never bear to really be part of it.”

Freyjin reached over and touched the shaking hand of the mousey little woman. “It’s a sad thing, that you’re not the norm in this world. If you were, maybe nobody would lose their children like I did, like so many others did.”

“A nice thought, thanks. Bothers me though. Still, as long as Kaiji is happy, and mistress is happy, that will do. But… I’m also really worried about the dead man.” Priceless shuddered again.

“Solution told me about that one, right… scary, a visible invisible man… how do we even fight that?” Freyjin let out a little shudder of her own.

“Mistress will find a way.” Priceless said, forcing a confident smile. “And if she doesn’t, you will. We’ve got differences… but I haven’t forgotten that you did a lot to save me… I never did thank you properly for that so… thank you, Freyjin.” Priceless bowed her head deeply.

Freyjin waved it off, “I was working for me, not you, so I don’t deserve thanks for that. For what it is worth though, I was glad you turned up safely…”

She coughed a few times, and cleared her throat before sentimentality could get to be too much, and, seeing the stack of marriage proposals on one side of the desk asked, “So, tell me the truth, do you think she’ll marry the Prince?”

Priceless looked at the stack, “Anything less than a Prince isn’t good enough for her. Even that though, I don’t know. My selfish belief is that I want her to myself, I don’t want to serve anyone but the woman who rescued me twice, and named me. That’s how I want to spend this life, anyone else, that’s in the way. Though…” Priceless looked down a moment, “I guess it would be nice, if she had a baby I could look after. A young master, young mistress to cuddle and teach.”

“None of your own?” Freyjin asked, and Priceless’s eyes filled with tears for a moment that caught Freyjin herself completely off guard.

“That will never be.” She said with bitter anguish and bit her lower lip to keep back trembling.

Freyjin straightened up from the sudden loud declaration. “Priceless… just because you’ve bonded with Kaiji that doesn’t mean you can’t… I mean if you’re worried about what would happen to them… mistress adores you. If you asked her not to take ownership over them and to let them grow up free…”

Priceless violently shook her head, “No! That’s not why. I love my mistress… I know she’d never be cruel to a child of my blood… and it isn’t because I’m too weak to defend them, and it isn’t because I’ve bonded to a woman.”

Freyjin started to stand up, “I’m, no, I brought up something painful that I shouldn’t have, I’ll go… I’ll… please forgive me.”

Priceless grabbed Freyjin’s wrist, “No, it’s alright, maybe it’ll feel good to say it.” Freyjin stopped in place. “It’s because I’ve been mutilated to keep it from happening… I used to work in a brothel, a long time ago. How do you think they keep girls who work there from getting pregnant all the time? I’ll tell you. I was just a cleaning girl, but when… when someone showed interest, well they had that done first. They use an enchanted poison, it makes you sick for a while, but it eats away at a woman’s insides in the ‘right’ places. After that… no children… ever.”

“Can’t healing magic fix it? I’m sure if you asked Lady Aiwenor, she would help you as a reward for your service.” Freyjin proposed, Priceless’s warm fingers were shaking around her wrist, she didn’t pull herself away.

Priceless’s bitter face didn’t change, “I ended up with a magic caster academy not long after, it’s how I learned how to use a first tier healing spell. I asked the masters at the school about it, they all said the same thing. A few of the nicer ones even gave me a look, a very nice one even let me see a non-magic doctor and a visiting alchemist. Everyone said the same thing. Too much time had passed, the scars inside are now part of me. As far as mana is concerned, there’s nothing there to heal, they’re part of me. Before that happened, I used to daydream about a happy life on a farm with a little version of myself, but all that’s gone. I knew the day they did that to me, I’d never be free, I’d never have what I wanted. I’ll live and die in service… But I’m lucky, I have my Kaiji. And I love my mistress. When she has a child, all that I would have given to my own… I’ll give to all of hers, I’ll hold them, love them, and treat them as mine, even though I will be theirs, and that’s life enough.” Priceless said while blinking back frustrated tears.

“I’m sorry, I’m rambling, you’ve got things to do, and it… it felt good to say it, thank you for listening, my rescuer.” Priceless gave her a fragile smile and released her hold on Freyjin’s wrist, and nodded toward the door.

Unable to think of what else to say, Freyjin could only walk out the door, and when she was out, she went straight to her quarters where she found her four, and hugged them all for a half an hour, without ever letting go, or explaining why.

Vargas could have been happier. But… it could have been worse too. ‘She really named me a top performer? She’s letting me pick someone to go free? Maybe I should pick myself. Get the hell on out of here, then I don’t have to worry about anything. Pay someone to tell Ta’lea I died in battle and… leave… them…’ He immediately hated himself for the thought, bile went up in his throat and it took several minutes to swallow it all. His fingers tensed around his weapon, and he focused instead on the question of why the elf had given him the top spot.

‘Maybe she’s expecting me to get the hell out of here, maybe she wants me to. Maybe she’s waiting for me to abandon my fellow Komestrans and… well am I even a Komestran? Or… if I’m not, I have no country… no place to go back to. Even if I could, who knows what would happen there. If she’s telling the truth. Who are you kidding, about that at least, you believe her. She couldn’t be here otherwise. So maybe that’s it, maybe this is just an easy way to get rid of you and prove to herself that every human from there is just scum. Scum that abandons their homes, their friends, and everyone.’

It grated. It rankled. It gnawed at his bones. ‘True, I did deserve that spot, no denying I’m at least the second best she’s got, but giving it to me because it’s ‘fair’?’

The thought itself made him sick, but there was also no denying her courage or leadership. There was no denying the love of his wife. He touched his forehead and recalled the washcloth Freyjin had used to clean the blood from his body when he lay battered and broken after the gauntlet, and the feel of her slap to his face. ‘Big brother huh? What a thing, what a helluva gods be damned thing. Big brother of an elf, husband of an elf, father of a half elf, soldier and slave of an elf… and a man with no country but a chance to make one…’

The other thing she spoke about came to mind, the allegedly good man who’d been a bad one. ‘Maybe that will… well, I don’t want to ask to see her. By all the gods the last thing I want is an audience, but there’s not a chance Kaiji or Sado will let me alone within ten feet of her.’

That was how he settled on what to do. After the Hanaksenian general was gone, and the guards were about, and all were asleep, Vargas made his move. Moving silently through a camp of tents was little different than moving through a forest. He stuck to the shadows, stepped lightly, and waited patiently with a quiet heart for opportunities to present themselves to get closer to his mistress’s tent. Thankfully it was large.

Also thankfully, he’d seen Sado go out from the camp, and not seen him yet return.

Vargas briefly thanked his instructors for all the hours they’d spent drilling lessons of stealth into his stubborn skull.

The moonless night made things even darker than usual, and the cloud cover over the stars was an added bonus. “[Sound of Shadows]” He activated the skill. He turned his head left or right, the guards were up and about, but they were confident the very presence of the camp was unknown to the city, and their sense of security, made the commander’s tent vulnerable.

Vargas yanked up the peg at one corner, it wasn’t much, but for someone accustomed to sleeping between tree branches and trees without rustling a leaf, it was comparatively easy. Then he was in, he brought the peg back down then released it and drew his hand into the tent with him.

There was no light to speak of, but there was a slow and steady breathing that could only belong to one person. ‘Did I just think of her as a person…?’ He asked himself, then dismissed the question and walked around the objects he felt were placed about the tent, and faced her cot.

The question of whether she was asleep was answered immediately. “If you’ve come to do what the men of your country loved to do best to my race… I’ll show you I don’t need a knife to kill you, Vargas.” Nua spoke to the darkness.

“You really are something… mistress.” Vargas said, and he felt the atmosphere around her relax. “I didn’t come to fight… I know this is… strange.”

“To sneak into your owner’s tent in the middle of the night while she’s in nothing but nightclothes and sound asleep? Yes, that would count as strange. But if you didn’t come to try to exact some brutal revenge or to try to… what was it breakers back home liked to say… do you know?” Nua asked.

Vargas shook his head in the dark, certain she had no trouble seeing. “I was a soldier, I don’t know anything about the ways they used to break elven women.”

“I think you can guess, can’t you, slave?” Nua spat at him and slowly sat up on her cot.

“I- Yes… I…” Vargas stammered, “But I’m not here to hurt you… I promise…” he went to his knees and held up his hands to show the elf they were empty.

“So fine, you’re not here for that, you’re damn sure not here for a love confession, so why are you here in your mistress’s tent in the middle of the fucking night?” Nua demanded and cracked the knuckles of her right hand.

“I wanted to ask about the one… the one who changed, the one who you said was terrible, but became one of the best of men… I just…” Vargas hissed and lowered his face to the ground and pounded it with his fist. “I feel so damn lost… I don’t know what to do! I don’t! I thought maybe… maybe if I knew something about that one…”

“You already know him, or at least knew of him. His name was Raymond, Raymond Zarg Lauransan, the Cardinal.” Nua’s voice became soft, longing, and utterly forlorn. So much so that despite the outrageous claim, he couldn’t find it in himself to disbelieve.

“You want to know… alright. The short version, he loved a half-elf like a daughter, and when she found no place for herself, she left him and the nation behind. When he saw half of her like he saw any other person… he saw all elves as people. Did you ever torture dogs when you were little, Vargas?” Nua asked him the question out of the blue, and he hissed a quiet denial.

“No, of course not…” He shook his head, confused but listening.

“But you tortured some of my race, didn’t you, because we were less than dogs, we were rocks, or monsters. Once Raymond stopped seeing that, he started seeing people in pain, hopeless, desperate, and he wanted to help. That’s how I met him, slave.” Nua answered the question, glad that he could not see the forming tears.

“You came to me wanting to be told what to do… wanting an answer, that’s all I can tell you, one of the most powerful men in the world at the time, just saw people in need and stopped seeing us the way he’d been taught. He wasn’t the only one, the one who… how did you put it? ‘Killed you’ was no different than he, everything she did to your country, was born from her outrage at your people’s merciless cruelty to mine.” Nua folded her hands in her lap, then on impulse, reached out and put her hand on the top of his head.

“I don’t envy you, slave… Vargas. I hope there comes a point where you can look at me and not see an animal needing to be put down or dominated. I won’t say I’m not a hypocrite for our relative stations now… but slave or not… even though part of me hates you for who you were, and who you may become… you’re just another person. A lot bitter, a lot broken, and a lot lost. All I can tell you is… as long as you belong to me, I’ll be as fair as I can be, as kind as I can be… as just as I can be… and when it’s all said and done, maybe I’ll be damned a little less. If you choose to go back, even your mistress can’t stop that. But if you want my advice… go forward.”

“Forward… I don’t even know what that is.” Vargas didn’t flinch from her touch, nor did he see the golden glow of the eyes of a priestess, though he felt the deathly cool of both her touch, and the radiant warm glow of her eyes in spite of himself.

“You’re going to have a child. They’ll be born free, I swear it. You’ve got a wife who loves you so much that she offered ‘anything’ to let you go like I’d freed her. I didn’t feel good about turning her down, but I’ll tell you this, that what waits for you isn’t common. You’ve got a future here if you embrace it.... And don’t sneak into your mistress’s tent in the middle of the night again.” Nua managed a grim only half jesting laugh, and Vargas slowly rose to his knees.

“I… I promise I won’t do that again, m-mistress. I just didn’t need any other ears…” He flushed and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

“Right… sneak into bed with your wife when you get back, assuming you can look at her without wanting to do what your people used to do to my kind.” Nua’s remonstration was a shot in the gut that made Vargas wince.

“Now go, and… walk out the front, when we’re done with this job, you’re going to have an assignment to do, if you want the time off with your wife, I can give you a day, but no more. If you don’t want to see her, or don’t want to come back… you did earn the right to set one person free. I will make an exception for you. Run away, don’t come back. I’ll tell your wife and ‘friends’ you died in combat, and I’ll make sure I look after your child when they’re born. They’ll hear that their father died a hero, not that their father left them because he thought they were less than a dog. Is there anything else, slave?” Nua asked and let out a yawn.

“No… mistress… that will be all… thank you… I mean that.” Vargas said, and walked out the front of the tent.

Nua yawned loudly and stretched back out in the cot, curling up comfortably, she went slowly back to sleep murmuring once, “It’s hard to be a mother sometimes.” She snorted at the half joke, and went back to what was for once, a very pleasant dream.