Page 93

After a short talk with Tarklin he rearranged some of the adventurers to be the young noble's guard and let them into the loop about her origins. I could tell that the sudden change in situation had irritated Tarklin quite a bit. Silva being Fae's guard had been convenient for him but he couldn't argue under the circumstances. Fae screaming that loud in the center of camp did a lot to convince him it was necessary. There was too much going on right now to question the way Karma worked, I had to put it out of my mind for now but I would have to come back to it eventually.

We had been stopped for too long already for Tarklin's taste so after a quick rearrangement of positions we got moving again. This time Silva and I sat alone next to the coach driver on one of the carriages.

Silva stretched her strong looking arms before leaning back against the wooden back of the coach seat. "Do you have any orders for me Mistress?"

I grimaced and quickly cast a small [Zone of Silence] around us. I know I shouldn't be doing this while on the road but it was necessary to me right now. Silva raised an eyebrow, I wasn't sure if she understood what I was casting until the sound died out around us.

"A silence spell? I wouldn't have pegged you as the type."

I sighed. "First order, I order you not reveal my secrets or anything you think could be interpreted as a secret to anyone who doesn't already know. Second order, I order you not harm anyone unless you are defending yourself or someone else and when you do, only use the appropriate force the situation calls for. Lastly, this isn't an order but I would prefer you not to call me mistress, just Lilith is fine."

I had already thought about how I would word those orders. I didn't like it but I also couldn't completely trust her yet. This was an important precaution for my own safety. But the thought of using magic to compel someone else's action didn't sit right with me all the same. It disgusted me.

Silva raised her eyebrow. "Those two orders leave me quite a lot of space to roam free. Are you sure you want to loosen my leash that much. ...not that I'm complaining."

"I believe in trust. The first order is because there will be secrets that I can't afford for you to reveal and it gives you as much protection as it does me. The second order is because I don't know you well enough to leave you to your own judgement entirely but it's loose enough that your hands won't be tied either. I plan to treat you as a friend and party member like I do the others, not as a slave. I'm trusting you to return that consideration as best as you can."

"You're an odd duck. Pretty though," she said with a laugh. Her eyes trailed down my body before settling back on my face. "As unfortunate as the loss of your armor is, you do look quite a bit more attractive without it."

I smirked. "I see you're not afraid to show your attraction to other women, you look quite attractive yourself. Something my girlfriends and I share."

She shrugged. "I don't have much need to hide it. Even if the Tamin bastards had a problem with it, I'm just a slave anyway. To them I might as well be invisible, just property of another. I thought you might swing that way though, perhaps I'll have you pegged yet."

I flushed a little at the visual and cleared my throat. "Well regardless we'll have to have a long talk about everything later tonight. I don't think it's a good idea to travel with a [Zone of Silence] up for too long. We need to stay on our guard."

She nodded and I dropped the spell around us. The eerie silence slipped away and the sounds of nature returned.

"So why was it you decided to buy me anyway? Unless that's one of the things you can't tell me," Silva asked.

"To be honest, our party is short on the front line. I'm our only vanguard and I don't know if I alone can cover our ...three other party members." Silva raised an eyebrow, clearly catching the pause but knew better than to ask at the moment. "I'm also more of a hybrid between a standard fighter and a mage so while I haven't run into problems yet, it could become challenging with too many enemies."

She nodded. "Makes sense. To be honest that sits better with me than buying me as a passing fancy. It might be a bizarre thing to say as someone who hates being a slave but valuing me as more than a sob story or a piece of ass makes me feel better. I'd rather fight by your side than only warm your bed or carry your stuff. You seem to treat your other slaves with respect, hopefully I can receive similar treatment."

"Well, to start I would prefer you avoid calling them slaves as much as possible. They are, I know. I also know I'm a hypocrite for hating slavery while owning three myself. But the two of them are Pantharians and can't be freed, and you are a crime slave, enslaved for life. I can either not partake at all and let the three of you receive worse treatment or buy you and do my best to treat you as equals, even when all of us know that you're not."

Silva shrugged. "I get it, I won't rub it in or make you feel guilty over it. But I won't lie to you and tell you that I'm happy being a slave. Or treat you with respect you don't deserve. Prove that you're a mistress worth serving and I'll be loyal to you, otherwise I'll only give you my bare minimum."

I smiled. "That's fair."

She turned and looked off into the distance. "You seemed to jump at the chance to purchase me from my former mistress. I find it a little bit suspect that you would 'hate' slavery so much yet jump at the chance to buy me."

I hesitated. Maybe I was a bit eager this time?

I looked up at the sky and tried to put my feelings into words. "Perhaps I was. But I wouldn't have even considered it if I thought the relationship between you two had been more positive. She was terrified of you and you were in the awkward position of being forced to protect someone who couldn't stand the sight of you. I did mean to talk to you about first, I really did, but in the moment I thought it would be best for everyone."

She nodded. There was a pause before she asked her next question. "You said you would have your two slaves freed if you could. Would that offer extend to me as well?"

I shifted my weight and considered the question. "I'm not sure. Frankly, we just met and I don't know your story yet. I trust my friends wholeheartedly and I'm wary of people learning certain things about me. If I freed them I wouldn't worry about them revealing things about me. As for you, well like I said we just met."

The demi-rabbit hummed. "So I would have to earn your trust... but it's not off the table?"

"It's not off the table... Assuming we had the tools to do so obviously. But like you said, you would need my trust and I would also need to know more about how you got to be in this situation first. We should talk about that later, with everyone." I glanced at the coachman who had been completely silent this entire time.

He met my gaze and just shrugged. "It's not my place to say what you do with your slaves. As long as it doesn't interfere with your job I don't care much."

Silva cleared her throat. "So as to fighting. Do you intend to arm me? I've been wearing rags since we left the lady's estate and I've been forced to fight unarmed this entire time."

"Your style of fighting isn't unarmed fighting?" I asked.

"Who would be crazy enough to choose to fight without a weapon? The only reason I've been forced to fight unarmed is because the lady was afraid I'd slit her throat or something. As if I even could with this collar around my neck."

"Huh, well okay. I might have clothes that would fit you but I don't have any spare weapons. We would have to buy you something. What kind of weapon do you use?"

"You have two swords on you right now."

"Like I said, I don't have any spare weapons on me."

"...Right. Well my preferred weapon is a spear anyway. Though I can use a variety of weapons."

The coachman chose to speak up. "John sells weapons, though you'd probably get a markup from him if you tried to buy one off him during the trip."

"Why would he charge us extra to buy it on the trip?"

"Well, it's not like you have many choices around here."

I scoffed. "Sure. I'll think about it."

Silva looked pointedly at my shirt. "What about your armor? I don't think there's anything but scrap metal to salvage from the one I pulled from your chest this morning."

I sighed. "I don't know. I would prefer not to get ripped off but it's still a long trip. I'll buy something from him if we don't find anything in the town two days away."

She shrugged. "Well it's better than having to fight bare handed all the way up to the northern greens."

"If your plan was to go up to the northern greens with Fae why were you headed in the direction of Traehall?"

"To get provisions and look for an elf to take us there. I'm not sure we would have made it, it was getting harder for the young lady by the hour. Coming across this caravan, headed up by an elf no less, was a stroke of luck." Her eyes trailed over my body with interest and she grinned. "In more ways than one."

"I'd prefer it if you didn't flirt with me in public."

"Is that an order?"

"...no."

She grinned wide at me before leaning in to kiss my cheek. "I think I like you already."

The coachman cleared his throat. "There aren't any from the Tamin church with us... as far as I'm aware, but I know of at least three people in the caravan who would throw a big fuss if they saw that sort of thing happen in front of them."

Silva grinned. "Good, I want to see it."

I covered my eyes with my hand. "Please try to keep us out of trouble. I have enough problems."

Silva shrugged. "Fine, but only because you asked nicely."

I couldn't help but smile. Silva probably would cause problems down the line but I found her attitude a bit refreshing. Maybe she would be a good example for the twins who still needed to loosen up a bit, become less docile.

I stretched out my arm, working out some of the residual soreness that had come from the wound and its rapid healing.

Silva looked over. "How's it feeling?"

"Still a bit sore. It feels like I pulled a muscle instead of getting metal shoved into it."

"That's pretty normal," she said.

"You've had that kind of healing before?"

Silva grimaced. "Unfortunately. Sometimes it itches like crazy too. Bella's healing is actually quite amazing. It seems much more powerful than it should at her level."

"You know her level?" I asked cautiously.

She shook her head. "It's not like I know the exact number or anything. It's just the higher level you are the more of a sense you get from it. Kind of like an instinct about how dangerous someone is relative to you. I can tell you're about the same level as me and she's a bit lower that both of us. She seems much more powerful of a healer than she should though. Especially for a nature based healer."

"Is there that much difference between the two? Is that why several people have asked her what kind of healer she is?"

"Ehhh..." Silva hesitated. "Usually when people ask you that it has more to do with how they feel about the Tamin church. What they're really asking is if you're a holy healer. It's not that holy healing is worse or anything, more that a lot of holy healers are associated with the Tamin church and that... complicates things."

I sighed. Of course it has to do with them again. Lately it seems like everything is coming back to them. "So... what? Would Fae have refused the healing if Bella had holy healing magic?"

Silva shrugged. "Probably not, she wasn't really in any position to refuse it. But having a nature healer probably warmed you up to her. The Tamin church doesn't like nature magic on the whole so it sort of proved you weren't associated with them."

"Seriously? Another thing the church hates us for? I'm starting to lose track."

She snorted in amusement. "You've had a few run-ins with those bastards?"

"You don't know the half of it." I groaned.