For the love of all that is holy just...stop talking. [GoblinFae]

[Goldie]

She hadn't even heard him come up from behind, which was honestly a feat because his chains were loud, but she was so intent on reading the spines of the books that everything else just faded into white noise. It seemed like she was going to have to get higher, so she reached her hand up towards the next shelf when his hands pressed against her butt.

A surprised squeal escaped her lips and she startled. Startled in possibly the worst spot to be startled. Her hovering hand tried to grab onto something, but all she got was a fistfull of texts that tumbled from the shelves and into the air behind her.

Unfortunately, she wasn't far behind. Her other hand thankfully kept her from falling completely backwards, but didn't help with much else. Her cheek smacked into the shelf and she toppled down onto the man below.

[GoblinFae]

See! He knew that she would fall! Now he'd probably get blamed for this too. Foolish woman! This was all her fault!

A thunderstorm of books rained down upon his head and shoulders even as in those few seconds he remained determined and upright to catch her. A hefty thunk and a whisper of fabric later, and Rene's were suddenly if a bit awkwardly filled with the annoying woman. He cradled her much as one might hold a baby or a new bride.

His lips pursed into a thin line as he stared down into her eyes as if deep into her very soul. "You are entirely too much trouble," he suddenly declared, his voice clear and confident if slightly accented. Swiftly he spun them about face before in a few elegant strides unceremoniously dropping her into a plush chair.

[Goldie]

She flopped into the armchair and her skirts poofed for a moment before settling down. A hand absently rubbed the cheek that had hit the shelf, but her eyes were staring unabashedly up at the man and glittered with mirth. Her lips tugged up in a small, triumphant smile.

"You do talk." She declared, her smile brightening, "I knew it." Traces of a bruise were already forming right underneath of clear, strikingly blue eyes. They couldn't be more opposite in appearance nor in demeanor.

"What is your name?" She asked after a few moments, "I suppose I could always call you 'boy' but that seems awfully demeaning, don't you think? I would very much like to thank you properly."

[GoblinFae]

And just like that Rene realized his slip up. Still he stared down at her once more with the same unseeing, emotionless gaze, head tilting slightly as if questioning the sounds coming out of her mouth. 'Nope, clearly mistaken, Little Bitch. Move along. Nothing to see here. Go back to forgetting I exist and I'm just another piece of the furniture to you.'

His eyes drifted to the ugly, forming bruise on her cheek. He was going to be in so much trouble the moment she caught sight of that. He could hear the screeching already. What punishment would it be this time? No meals? Kneeling in the courtyard all day? A whipping? 'I bet she'll be laughing then too.'

[Goldie]

She leaned forward and rested her arms on her knees, clearly unconcerned about her face or anything else really. Her eyes were focused on him completely and she clocked the moment the switch happened. What had she expected? The things this man had seen she could only imagine and even then she probably only guessed the half of it.

Her smile wilted and a sadness swept over her features.

"I'm sorry." She told him softly, "I know you don't believe me, but I am. For all of this. For the life that was stolen from you. For the people who hurt you." She stood and bowed ever so slightly towards him, "I hope that, one day, you'll feel comfortable enough to share your name with me. Until then, I won't take it from you."

And she swept pasted him to begin straightening the books that were askew on the ground from her fall. There was no way she would be able to get them back up....so she piled them in her arms and deposited them onto a nearby table.

[GoblinFae]

His entire expression and body language was that of sarcastic disbelief. She didn't want to take his name? Because after all the indignities he had suffered THAT would be too far. His freedom, his home, his human rights, his voice, his language, his pride, but sure his name was too much.

After a pause he moved carefully to bend and assist in picking up the books. "You heard nothing."

[Goldie]

She didn't even make eye contact as he stooped down to help. Instead, she replied to his comment softly, "Not a damn thing. And...thank you. For catching me." And then continued putting the books in neat piles in silence.

Then she sat down and began perusing the books that had been accidentally collected. Most were also useless, but she wasn't about to climb the shelves again and was beginning to wonder what use any of these collections would serve her.

Until, underneath the larger tomes she pulled out a small music book and she couldn't help the small smile that tickled her lips. With a glance up at her companion, she slid it across the table.

"This one seems interesting. I wonder if you could hold it for me?" Music held no interest for her, but she thought, maybe, this little book might offer him even the slightest bit of happiness, even if just in nostolgia. The tiny book was opened to a page that read "Thanati Folk and Ceremonial Songs."

[GoblinFae]

He snorted and rolled his eyes at her response. Rene didn't trust her as far as he could run from her in chains and that certainly wasn't far at all. Still he stood silently at her side as she sifted through the texts. When she placed the opened text in his hands he could only spare it a glance before looking ahead again. No look of recognition passed his face as while Rene had proven to be adept enough in the Trader's Tongue, what Lenoryn had failed to consider was the fact that the Thanati slave could not read either the text in his hands nor the music that was written on the pages. As far as he was concerned, she had just handed him the recipe for Thanati slave soup.

[Goldie]

A small headache began to form behind her temples at the look that remained plastered on the man's face. She realized that he had no reason to trust her, but good Gods what did she need to do to get even the slightest reaction other than being completely ignored? Did his idiot act actually work with the others in the household?

She sighed and rubbed her forehead absently while getting lost in whatever text was before her. The Serenian Guide to Travel. Riveting. But she was too tired to actually look for something that sparked interest. The days of travel were actually catching up to her and she found herself dozing onto her propped hand without realizing it.

"Daughter!" A very unwelcome voice jerked Lenoryn from her slumber and she bolted upright in a very unladylike fashion. Sure enough, coming towards them, was the Lady Heleane in a completely new gown. This one was quite possibly even more gaudy than the first. Not a single section of cloth was not bedazzled or embroidered and every finger held at least one ring, sometimes two. Her salted red hair was piled high on her head and a crystal tiara glittered amongst the chaos.

As she swept past the slave, a single finger brushed across his collar which caused Lenoryn to pause. It was an odd gesture.

"Dear sweet daughter, you aren't even starting to get ready for dinner but instead getting dirtier in this forsaken place. Your father had no idea how to raise a daughter, but I'll make sure you are brought up to speed. We certainly must make sure your prospects are good. Harp lessons, embroidery, proper....hygiene...." she turned up her nose at the dust that had settled along the sleeves of Len's travel gown.

"There is still time before dinner, I trust?" Len responded with fake sweetness. The list Heleana just rattled off sounded absolutely dreadful.

"Oh, not nearly enough. Not any more. You'll need to go immediately. Rene " She whipped around and walked much too close to the slave. Len felt her stomach turn. Something about it was just not right. "I believe you can get her safely back to her rooms." She pressed her have against his face and said firmly, "With no trouble. "

[GoblinFae]

Fire flashed in his eyes at the initial touch but otherwise he remained like a stone statue, unfeeling, unmoving, unthinking. It was as if the conversation happening around him was nothing more than the buzz of gnats and he heard nothing at all.

Only once the lady of the house was once more turning her wrathful gaze upon him again did he show any signs of life. His glassy gaze turned sharp and alert as he held his breath to not breath in the cloying scent of her perfume. Her touch repulsed him and it took every fiber of his being to resist striking her and instead resort to a simple disgusted twitch of his lip. The movement was brief and easy to as he was quick to turn his cheek into her hand and close his eyes as if being quite the good little boy. Inside all he wanted to do was bite her fingers off.

[Goldie]

Lenoryn watched the exchange with budding horror and a cold chill ran down her spine. This couldn't possibly be...she must be imagining...the days travels had left her...but no excuse, no "but if" could explain away the twitch in his armor before leaning into Heleane's touch.

Before she even knew what she was doing or even taking a moment to list off the possible repercussions, Len was on her feet and not-so-gently pulling her mother's arm into her own and steering her away from the slave. Her heart pounded in her ears and her cheeks were flushed. What was she going to do now? This wasn't planned. She had no plans. She didn't do this. Impulsiveness wasn't her strong suit.

"Mother," she was panicking, maybe the endearment Heleane had been trying to force would be enough? "I am so sorry to have caused you discomfort." She loosened her grip to make it appear as if she had grabbed her out of affection and began steering her away from...Rene was it? She risked a quick glance back at him before returning her attentions to the demon on her arm.

"I am..." what could she possibly say!? "I am quite overwhelmed." Very true, "My father never did push the womanly arts and I'm afraid I won't be any good. Perhaps....but no...no I couldn't possibly...I would be asking too much." What the hell was she doing? This was never going to work. Heleane would see through it in a heartbeat. Len was a horrible actress.

"Just speak it, daughter." Heleane's other hand reached around her body so her other hand was resting on top of her arm.

"I believe my...uh....prospects...might increase if there was maybe something visible while I'm....learning..." the poise she'd had up until the point had completely and fully fallen away as she tried to piece together her words. Surprisingly, the stuttering seemed to be having the exact effect she had been hoping for as her mother tenderly patted her arm in support.

"Just speak plainly, Lenoryn." She said with a tenderness Len had not seen in her yet. She doesn't see me as a threat. she thought suddenly, she sees me as a child needing guidance.

"I've been told that slaves are a sign of status. If he were to accompany me then your, no, my...suitors...might overlook my other...uh...failings."

Heleane froze for an instant and glanced back at Rene and then at Lenoryn, eyes calculating. For a moment she thought the plan would fail and that her mother had seen through the ruse.

"You wish for me to gift him to you?" Heleane asked slowly.

"I have a lot of failings." Len replied almost too quickly. Her heart was racing, her palms sweaty.

"Fine." She let go of her daughters hand and stepped towards the door, "I'll have the servants prepare the side room off of your chambers." She frowned and jammed a finger against Len's chest, "His chains stay on."

Once her skirts had disappeared around a shelf, Lenoryn wilted visibly and leaned heavily against a table. "Gods, I hate her." She murmured to herself as she clutched the table until her knuckles turned white.

"C'mon, then." She gestured to Rene and began walking back to her, no, their rooms.

[GoblinFae]

And there was Little Bitch now scrambling to claim him from Mistress Bitch and showing her true colors after all. He had not been wrong to not trust her. She was just as deceptive as all the rest of the Inima-cursed pale-skinned monsters of this country. She was just another snake trying to lure him in with her pretty scales and hypnotic movements before striking with twice as much venom. Foul beast!

The fire grew within his gaze now directed at the back of her head as they walked to her rooms. What new indignity would befall him here? Would he now be shared between the two? How vile. Or perhaps it was humiliation she was after for having touched her rear and bruised her cheek? Would it be beatings? Would it be kneeling bare all night on the cold floors? Whatever it was, he knew he was not keen on it and would need to be extra watchful so that his escape efforts might bear fruit. She was not wise to his antics yet. She could in turn be deceived if he played his cards right.

[Goldie]

Lenoryn had a pretty good sense of direction and was able to find her way back to her rooms with only a few moments to pause and ponder her way. The house wasn't overly complicated in its layout, thankfully, and Heleana had placed her on the main floor. She assumed, from what she had seen so far, that her mother lived on the upper floor.

That was interesting, though not disagreeable. It was always nice being a closer to the earth, where things grew. The earth she understood and she had no desire to look to the skies when she had everything she needed right here with both feet on the ground.

A sigh escaped her lips when she entered into her room again. Though, this time, she realized that her initial reaction had been slightly exaggerated. The pink was closer to a coral and there was a good amount of ivory interspersed. Not that it helped much. It was still gaudy and, quite frankly, ugly.

And then there was the insane dress that was laid out for her for the evening. It was almost a duplicate of the one Heleana had been wearing in the library.

No no, she wouldn't be wearing that.

"It looks like they must be finished setting up your room." She commented when realizing there were no servants bustling about.

She made her way to the door on the right side of the room, opposite of the windows, and frowned when she tried the handle and realized it was locked. A Quick look around showed a key hanging on a hook next to it. Her frown deepened and she silently chided herself for being an idiot.

He was a slave. She was in charge of his captivity.

Her stomach churned as she turned the key and opened the door to...

A completely empty room. There was no furniture, no windows, just wallpapered walls and a large chain hooked into the middle of the floor.

"Shit..." she couldn't stop the curse before it left her tongue, "oh, Kia, no. This is...no."

She turned to face him, concern and disgust readily on her features, "Is this...how they force you to live?"

[GoblinFae]

Rene looked at the back of her head as if she was insane. Nice joke, the servants who had no idea that he was now her property having already finished preparing a room for him? Just how cruel was this woman? First she feigns concern and horror followed by attempts at camaraderie and then she's claiming him as her own property and cracking jokes about his fate. What a monster!

He raised a brow in the face of her faux horror, completely unimpressed. "It too good for you?" Rene sneered back, his voice soft and low, barely above a whisper as he angrily walked in and sat at the expected spot by his chain, waiting for her to put him in his place and punish him for speaking out.

[Goldie]

"What?" She exclaimed as he spoke and brushed past her to angrily sit on the floor by the chain, "Too good for you?" His ire was justified, she couldn't fault him for it. If her suspicions were true he was staring at the daughter of a monster who had just, basically, purchased him like a business transaction.

How must that look? How must that feel? To he who had nothing. He who was plucked from his own to be the property of another.

"No...that's not...I didn't mean..."she was so far out of her element that she didn't know the right thing to do.

"I'm sorry." Was all she could muster before turning away to hide the tears that started pooling in her eyes. No one deserved to live a life like that. No one.

She began bustling around the room pulling the gaudily embroidered comforter from her bed along with a few decorative pillows. They weren't much, and she certainly wouldn't call them comfortable, but Kia they should serve better than the floor.

She folded them neatly and than approached the side room, setting the key to the room on top of the main pillow. Then she placed them just inside the door but didn't dare go in any further. She couldn't offer him much. Hell, she couldn't offer him anything he might actually want.

She kept her eyes on the floor when she addressed him next and her hands were clasped tightly together, constantly wringing around each other.

"I won't use it. But you should have it so you can be sure. I don't...want to make your life more difficult than it already is...Kia, there's so little I can actually do...but...I'll do what I can."

Then she turned from him and began pulling a dress of her own choosing for the dinner.

[GoblinFae]

He audibly scoffed at her, glaring daggers into her back. She did not want to make his life difficult she said in one breath as her actions did the opposite. He did not believe those shark tears for a single second.

"Haven't you done enough?" Rene growled, getting to his feet to stand in her doorway. "You will not survive here if you do not bend to her will. Suffer all you like but you are going to get me killed."

[Goldie]

Her shoulders stiffened as he scolded her and she felt anger rising in her born from his accusations. She was making his life harder? Being nice to him was going to get him killed?

She whipped around, her hands in fists by her side, "Why?" She hissed, but kept her distance, "She is horrible. I imagine she has done unfathomable things to you and what? You would prefer to continue under her thumb? I saw your face when she touched you. She is a monster, but I doubt this is new information for you like it is for me. My father never spoke of her. When I was five he took me away and that was the last time I so much as set eyes on her. I may be naive. I may not have known what I was walking into by coming here but I'll be damned if I don't try to do something right. So you can sit in there by yourself and be angry with me all you want, but I brought you here so you didn't have to be with her."

She turned around again and stomped towards the bed where that Gods awful dress still laid and only then did she notice the matching male clothes that laid near by. Apparently her slave was intended to look good for these events, too.

A loud curse exploded from her mouth as she scooped them up and dumped them on top of the folded blankets.

"Apparently she wants you to wear this, too. We can look like fools together."

[GoblinFae]

Rene was unimpressed and rolled his eyes at her words. "Shall I get on my knees and thank you properly for saving me then Mistress? How do you prefer it? Bent back over the bed or standing in domination? You did nothing but bring more attention to me for your own devices. I am not the fool you take me for," he hissed snatching up the clothes without seeming phased at all.

Wordlessly he stripped out of his clothes right there without bothering to turn away or close his door as if the act had been performed so many times that there was nothing to feel shame over. It took him little time at all as it was to put on the scraps of fabric that constituted 'clothes' on; a privacy cloth that covered his front with longer, sheer panels over top for the front and back was all he received in matching colors to Lenoryn's outfit. He was completely bare from the waist up and too strong a movement on his part would flash anyone in the vicinity; a smaller concern however given his still shackled ankles.

[Goldie]

Lenoryn expected the anger. She was feeling it herself. How could she prove to him that she wasn't her mother? That she didn't approve of any of this and was just doing what she could to help him even a little bit? Should she have just let him be?

No...that would never be the right choice, not in this situation...but Kia he was already making her regret it. She could feel sorry for him, feel pity even, and still find him completely frustrating, right? Did that make her a bad person? Should she be more understanding? Probably...but he was just so...infuriating!

She was about to open her mouth to tell him so when his next words caught her by surprise, "If you hate it here then go!" she began and then blinked, brain processing slowly, "What? You...bent over?" the blood simultaneously left her and rose in her cheeks all at once. Surely he wasn't...he couldn't be insinuating that she...that they...

And then he was stripping.

Kia, he was taking off his clothes right now. Right in front of her. Without a care in the world. No, not without a care, with anger.

"What are you doing!?" She couldn't help the squeaks that replaced her normal speaking voice and, quite without thinking, her hands flew over her eyes and she turned from him, heart racing in her chest. "Oh my Gods. Oh my, Gods!" she repeated to herself, voice still many registers higher than it should be. Her hands were still over her eyes despite being turned away from him and she even took a few purposeful steps in the opposite direction. Her toes his the leg of the bed and she stumbled, half falling, half catching herself on the banister as all grace and decorum fled.

Kia, she wanted to run. She needed to get away. She needed to give space between them!

So she did the only thing she could think. She grabbed the dress she had selected for herself, not even remembering or thinking about the matching one her mother had laid for her, used the fabric to cover her face, and sped past him into the little side closet of a room that had been "prepared" for him and closed the door.

"You...you stay out there!" she called through the crack, "Don't come in here! I'm going to change."

[GoblinFae]

It was a grave understatement to say that Rene was simply amused by her shock and horror. It served her right. She wanted a slave, then she would have to do better with directing and keeping one. He was determined to make her as uncomfortable as he respectfully could as punishment for keeping a man against his will. He would make her feel as humiliated as he did before he finally took his leave and sailed back home to Thanatos, home to where he belonged and was respected and revered, not used as a toy for the whims of these pigwomen.

"You have the wrong dress, Mistress," he called after but otherwise making no effort to do anything about it.