Shadowborn

Chapter Fifty-Seven: New Faces

Chapter Fifty-Seven: New Faces

By the time we made it back, everyone but the guards had called it a night. We checked in with the current watch to make sure nobody sent any search parties after us before we headed back for our camp. Noelle still wanted to make sure Kili, Nariko, and whoever else was in their tent were taken care of, so she bade us goodnight with a tight hug and a promise that she’d think on what she’d seen tonight.

It wasn’t the roughest I’d ever been in my life, but it was the roughest she’d seen me be. We still hadn’t done anything sexual where she wasn’t on top and in complete control, and though I had an inkling she could handle more I wasn’t going to push her until she thought she was ready for more.

I made good on my promise with Rhallani and went another round with both Serena and Tiana before we called it a night. Being intimate with them wasn’t exactly a cure all for the shit going on in my head, but it certainly made it easier to bear the weight of it all knowing I wasn’t alone. Being able to vent my emotions physically without fighting for my life was a nice change of pace as well, and they vehemently assured me they were more than happy to help me vent all I wanted.

But, as usual, it felt like for every step forward I took I ended up falling back two. My nightmares that night were worse than they’d ever been, trapping me in vivid visions of being collared and back in Karn’s clutches. Even worse, it wasn’t just the other experiments that were imprisoned with me. When I woke the next morning, covered in a sheen of sweat and clenching my entire body to the point of pain, I could still see the images of the people I’d come to care for wearing Karn’s twisted collars every time I closed my eyes.

It seemed that me being the first one awake and the last one to drag himself out of the tent was becoming the new normal. The others knew I was struggling after my episode yesterday, but until we were in a position to do something about it I didn’t want them to know exactly how much. Not only that, but it was best if the rest of the caravan didn’t see me as one bad day away from becoming unhinged. By the time I finished getting dressed and banished our gear into my storage, my mask was firmly in place. I checked my Essence pool before I stepped out and sighed.

[Soul Essence: 59/120]

My regen was already better than it had been, but I’d used some of my Essence yesterday without even meaning to. Now that I knew how to, dipping into the pool was so easy I barely even had to think about doing so before I’d expended the points. I needed to get a handle on this new resource before I got myself into a situation I couldn’t fight my way out of.

I stepped out of the tent and was immediately surprised by how much movement was going on. The demi-humans we’d saved already seemed to be hard at work helping pack up the caravan. I’d only been standing there for less than a minute before breakfast was pushed into my hands by one of the elves—a High Elf with flowing golden hair and eyes to match—who smiled brightly despite her sunken cheeks and thin frame.

“Thank you for saving us, sir. The others told us how it was your plan and your household that did the brunt of the fighting. Let us know if there’s any way we can repay you,” she said. She bowed gracefully, then was gone before I could so much as answer.

I was in the process of finding somewhere to set the food so I could pack up my tent when the red Tiefling swooped in and started folding it up for me. “Ah, that’s not necessary—” I started.

“I already took care of Lady Vivian’s,” the woman said, “this is the least I can do.” Her long black hair was tied back with a simple leather band. Her violet eyes seemed to look everywhere but at me. “This design makes it much easier than the other tents anyways.”

“I see,” I said uncertainly. In the time it took me to try and think of a way to stop her from doing my work, she’d finished. “Well, thank you, then.”

She smiled, her eyes on the ground in front of me, and bowed her head. “My pleasure, sir.” Then she headed off as quickly as the Elf had. I cast my eyes around the camp to see that it was the same everywhere else. The dwarf woman and the Lycanine were both helping load everything back onto the wagons while the blue Tiefling and both the High Elves flitted about making sure everyone was fed.

Chewing on the tough jerky that was my breakfast, I circled around to the back of my wagon. Sola was curled up near the edge, asleep and at peace despite the injuries still present on her face. Vivian was chatting amiably with Anri, who held Kili in her lap so tightly the girl was starting to turn purple, though she voiced no complaint. One of the elder Erinyes’s wings were bandaged, but she had a smile planted firmly on her face with Kili in her arms.

“Oh, Ren, there you are.” I turned to see Mihrel walking up to me, the Dark Elf woman at his side. “We should probably chat before we get moving.”

“Mihrel,” I greeted him with a nod, then turned to the Elf. “Sorry, but I haven’t gotten any of your names yet.”

She inclined her head, her expression carefully passive. “I am Suriel, my lord. I was a midwife for one of my previous Patrons and his wife had poor health, so I received some basic training in the field. I was offering Mr. Mihrel my expertise, if it pleases you.”

I cleared my throat, somewhat uncomfortable with the subservient nature she addressed me with. “Just Ren is fine for now, no need for honorifics. And we’re happy for any help you can offer, of course.”

Some of the tension in her face relaxed, but that was the extent of her reaction. “Of course, Ren.” Then she went silent, clearly waiting for Mihrel to speak.

He looked marginally more comfortable than me, but he went on anyways. “The demi-human captives are in relatively good health. Medically speaking, other than Anri, I have no real reason to keep them from walking today.”

I glanced to where Anri sat. She was still talking with Vivian, but I could tell she was listening to our conversation as well. “And how is Anri?”

He chuckled. “She’ll tell you she’s fine, but her wing took some damage when the gnolls captured her and flying on it during the fight only made things worse. I’d like her grounded for a week and off her feet for at least the next day if you want it to heal properly.”

I wasn’t a fan of how he talked about her as if she was mine, but he kept talking before I could interrupt. “Sola was the only one really injured. According to Suriel, she arrived already pretty badly beaten. The gnolls didn’t exactly care for her, so a couple of her injuries are infected. Between Serena and some of Ryoko’s potions she should make a full recovery, but we’ve got her knocked out today to speed things along. You can wake her if you want, but my recommendation is to let her rest.”

“I’ll defer to you, then,” I said slowly.

He nodded, letting out a relieved breath that made my stomach twist a little. “Right, I should get back to Korey. I’ll leave Suriel with you.”

He turned on his heel and sped off, and Suriel didn’t move a muscle. She waited patiently, so I took a second to give her a once over. Mihrel said she was fine physically, but I wanted to know how she was handling everything else.

She had silver hair that hung to her chin and eyes the color of obsidian. Her skin was a deep violet, several shades darker than Noelle’s. Of the few rescued captives I’d seen so far, she showed the most physical signs of captivity. Her cheeks were sunken and she had deep bags under her eyes, and her arms were thinner than they should have been.

“How are you faring, Suriel?”

“Fine, sir,” she answered automatically. “I will recover in time. I am more than capable of performing any duties needed of me.”

I crossed my arms and didn’t miss the nearly imperceptible flinch on her face when I did. “How long did the gnolls have you?” I asked.

Her throat bobbed. “I was captive the longest out of the ones you saved. There were signs that others had been in the den before me, but I never saw any. Three weeks. Perhaps more. It’s difficult to say for sure.”

“Do you have a Patron still?”

She shook her head. “No. The gnolls killed him, and he had no next of kin. There will be nobody looking for me.”

“No family?”

She shook her head. “I grew up in a demi-human orphanage and became a servant as soon as I was old enough. I’ve had four Patrons in twenty years. The first Patron I served with my body, the next as a maid. The third I was midwife for and helped raise his children until they were old enough to take care of themselves. He had a gambling addiction and I was one of the many pieces of property he lost to his poor luck. I was only with my last Patron for a few months, but I very much doubt anyone will miss him.”

The lifeless way she rattled her life story off made me realize that my only real experience with the Patron-servant relationship was through Rhallani’s tales. She looked like she was in her early twenties, which for an Elf meant she could be as old as forty or fifty, which lined up with her story. A part of me was amused by the thought that she’d been born around the same time as me, but that also meant she’d been a victim of the Accords for nearly as long as they’d existed.

I knew she’d push herself until she dropped if I demanded it, and despite her reassurances I could already see the signs of fatigue from what little she’d done today. “If it’s alright with you, I think I’d feel best if you rode this wagon today so you can watch over Sola and Anri.”

Her shoulders drooped slightly in what I hoped was relief, but she was practiced at schooling her emotions. “If that pleases you, sir, then I am more than happy to assist.”

I walked with her to the back of the wagon and held a hand out to help her up. She hesitated, but when she looked at the height of the wagon she took the hand and allowed me to help her up. I could feel the weakness in her fingers and the slight tremble that rocked her from the exertion of climbing up, and I didn’t miss how heavily she sat down or the sigh that escaped her lips when she did. I realized then that I’d have to watch all the rescued captives closely to make sure they weren’t pushing themselves too hard. I didn’t think they’d tell us if they did.

“Oh, Ren!” Vivian exclaimed. “It’s good to see you up and about. I was just talking with Anri and her adorable sister.”

Anri gave me an appreciative nod while Kili looked at me like I’d hung the moon. “You saved my sister, then you saved me,” Anri said. “I can never repay that debt.”

I waved a hand. “I did what was right, no more and no less. You don’t owe me anything as far as I’m concerned.”

I thought it over for a minute, then sought out Serena and Tiana who were sitting nearby. Tiana smiled at me, and Serena nodded enthusiastically. It wasn’t exactly a hard choice. I’d seen her skills first hand, after all. I conjured a collar and held it out. “You’ve got a deal, then.”

Her head whipped towards me, her eyes wide and something that looked dangerously like hope to me in them. “What? Really?”

“Yes, really,” I said with a chuckle. “You drive a hard bargain, but if you’re serious—”

The collar was gone from my hands before I even realized she’d moved. “I thought it would be harder to convince you.” She looked at the collar in her hands with wide eyes.

“I can take it back if you’ve got more,” I offered.

“No!” she cradled the collar to her chest, then schooled her expression. “I mean, that isn’t necessary. Um, how do I...”

“You push your mana into one end, then I do the same with the other, then once I put it on you it’s done.”

She held it reverently for a moment before scooting just close enough that I could reach her without Noelle having to move from where she watched silently on my lap. I let her hold the collar while I channeled my mana and she brought it to her neck so I could wrap it around her. The two ends met and it shrank to fit her slim neck, then I felt the magic seal.

“You won’t be able to take it off,” I explained, “but if for any reason you want to leave my service then tell me and I can remove it.”

She touched her fingers to it with a soft smile in an expression I’d only ever seen on Rhallani’s face. “Thank you,” she said finally. “What do you want to know?”

I thought about postponing the conversation, but I knew I wouldn’t sleep until I knew what she knew. “Do you know where their camp is?” I asked first.

She shook her head. “No. They’d blindfold us if they ever let us out of the cage, and they rode on horseback for a few hours before we went into the woods where you saved me.”

That wasn’t surprising. It was a long shot anyways. “Then we’ll skip to the collars.”

She nodded, her tail swishing behind her. “There were two demi-humans in the camp I was in that wore them. At first I thought they worked for the bandits, but from the way they were treated I realized they were as much captives as I was. Then when I saw the collars light up whenever they were given commands I knew exactly what they were.”

Noelle clutched me even tighter. “Describe them,” she commanded.

Nariko’s brow furrowed, but when I nodded she said, “a really tall blue half-dragon and a Dark Elf with silver hair and eyes.”

Noelle gasped. “Nine and Fourteen.” She turned her face up at me with a tormented expression. “We have to—”

“We’ll save them,” I promised her. “I already promised to, remember?”

Tears built in her eyes and she buried her face in my chest. I turned back to Nariko. “I’ll need everything you can remember. Numbers, layouts, prisoners, any classes you might be able to guess. Anything the eyes of a fucking good Thief might have picked up,” I finished with a smile.

The corners of her lips turned upwards, and her shoulders squared. “Gladly.”

I waved my girls over. Rhallani plopped down next to me with one of her journals and Tiana sat on my other side and wrapped an arm around my waist, resting her chin on my shoulder. Serena took a seat next to Nariko and pulled her into a tight hug that the Nekomata practically melted into. “Welcome to the family,” she said.

Nobody called any attention to the tears Nariko blinked away before she started talking, giving us everything she could remember. Already her skills as a Thief were paying off, because she could remember a hell of a lot. They had us beat in numbers, but they were undisciplined. She knew who the laziest sentries were, where they kept the captives, the preferred fighting style of half the damn group, and more. I made a mental note to send a prayer of thanks to Fortuna later. She’d done me a great service in leading me to Nariko in more ways than one.

For the next two hours we went over everything she could tell me. By the time we finished, she was already starting to nod off in Serena’s arms. We moved on to strategizing and she curled up with her head on Serena’s breasts and was snoring softly in seconds.

The enemy was people, not gnolls. That made things easier in some respects, but harder in most. Not to mention the two slaves we had to find a way to neutralize without causing them too much harm. I had no doubt they’d be forced to fight back, and trying to remove their collars in the heat of battle was a good way to remove their heads by accident.

I had Rhallani start working on a non-lethal form for Fang and she told me she already had some ideas with a glow in her eye that made me worry just a little. There was also the issue of the prisoners that Nariko had seen. There were two cages: Nekomata and everyone else. She wasn’t sure how many captives they had, but she knew there had only been a single Nekomata left when she’d been taken. That put us on a bit of a time crunch, but until the bandits showed themselves there was little we could do outside of trying to search the entire forest.

By the time we’d finished, it was getting late. Serena opted to stay behind with Nariko. Apparently she’d hardly been sleeping and she was loathe to wake the poor girl now that she was finally getting some decent rest, and I had to resist the urge to tease Serena about how eager she was to be a pillow.

I took a lap through the camp to see how everyone was faring. The former captives seemed to be in high enough spirits, but I couldn’t help but notice that all of them were working. Iris and Brinya were both helping Garm clean up the night’s meal. Suriel was still hovering around Sola and Anri despite the exhaustion I could see in her limbs. The two High Elves were both chatting while they worked on what I realized to be a number of my ruined garments, patching up the many holes. I also saw Friya and Zerali coming back into camp with baskets of wet clothes being led by Zoey.

Frowning, I sought out Cynthia. She was watching with amusement while Elisa and Ryoko were locked in discussion about whatever thing they were thinking of creating. “Cynthia,” I called, causing her to jump, “A word?”

She nodded and we stepped away from the camp. “Sir?”

“The captives are all working,” I noted.

Her brow furrowed. “I made sure any jobs I gave them were low impact. I didn’t realize Friya and Zerali were headed off to clean clothes until they’d already left or I’d have advised against it, but they at least took Zoey as protection.”

“Why are we giving them jobs in the first place? They should be recovering,” I argued.

She opened her mouth to answer, paused, closed it, looked ahead, then sighed. “May I be blunt?”

“You know I prefer it that way.”

“You told me to give them anything they needed, and they need these tasks.”

My first instinct was to disagree, but I usually found myself on the same page as Cynthia. I couldn’t really argue until I at least heard her logic. “Explain what you mean by that, please.”

She nodded curtly. “You’re still unaccustomed to the standard servant-Patron dynamic. To put it simply, they need to feel useful. At the end of the day, all servants have at least one use. Especially women,” she added with a pointed look. “Giving them not only the chance to be useful but to prove themselves useful in a way that doesn’t involve their bodies puts them at ease.”

A grimace flitted over her face briefly. “If you have them stand around and doing nothing, there’s going to be a part of them always looking over their shoulder at night wondering if it’s the night you plan to visit them in their beds. This way they can feel like they’re earning their passage and your protection without having to worry about you taking payment from them down the road. Give them some time to gravitate to the tasks they enjoy and it will help them trust you in the long run.”

After a brief pause, she said in a less businesslike tone, “their lives have been turned upside down and any futures they might have had planned have been thrown into chaos. Simple jobs like repairing and washing clothes or cooking give them some level of returning to normalcy. Many of them have been servants for years or more, so this is the life that they know.”

I looked over the camp again, seeking out those I could see from my spot. I could see the tension in the way that they moved. The fear that came naturally with being in an unfamiliar place after going through something horrific. “I don’t like it,” I said finally, and she took a breath, “but I’ll put my trust in you for now. I can see your logic, at least.”

She nodded. “It’s for the best in the long run,” she promised me. Then she smirked. “This kind of thing is what you pay me for, after all.”

I returned her smirk. It certainly was, and once again I felt like I wasn’t paying her enough.