The Black of a Rainbow (DragonSong)

[zozee9]

It started small. The dark clouds let go of a few drops of rain, each one sending a small ripple in the vast desert that was seemingly had the consistency of water. The ripples clashed, and a little more rain came. This time, faster. The ripples grew bigger, and more rain fell. The ground now rose up into huge waves, falling over themselves repeatedly. A little girl stood in the middle of it all, naked. Her black hair and dark skin made her bright red wings pop. Her head tilted up as she stared at the clouds. The rain didn't fall on her, but the giant waves were all heading inward toward her. They merged and reached their peak so that she was completely enveloped by them. Then the little girl blinked. The clouds vanished, the waves—no the sand—all was back to where it was supposed to be, and there was a rainbow over the little girl's head. Except it couldn't be a rainbow. There were no lines or colors—it was pitch black.

Nitya awoke with a start. Her blankets were thrown across the floor, her pillow halfway across the room. It looked as if she had battled her bed in her sleep. Her body covered in sweat and aching, Nitya knew she must have lost that battle. She sat up with a groan. It was her fifth time having that dream, all within a month. Every time she had it, she woke up in the same way. It wasn't a nightmare, it wasn't even a bad dream. But for some reason, she detested it.

After getting out of bed, Nitya hobbled over to the wardrobe. She scratched her naked back and flinched. Her upper back had been unreasonably sensitive lately, and she had no clue why. Nitya pulled a silk purple dress out—her favorite one. She slid it on and looked at herself in the mirror. She might feel sore and unladylike, but she looked gorgeous. The dress's low neckline and back would have been considered quite promiscuous elsewhere, but it was modest in Essyrn. She fluffed her soft curly hair with her hands before returning to the wardrobe. Grabbing a golden accessory that resembled a tiara, Nitya finally smiled. Dressing so nice and looking so pretty made up for her dream. It would be a good day, she was sure of it.

Nitya put on some sandals, grabbed her purse, and left the inn. The summer sun was hot, as always, and she loved it. She smiled as she walked, ignoring all the looks of admiration she was getting. It wasn't like she was going to look back anyway. She had been planning on doing some shopping, to splurge a little, but she hadn't made it a block before a sharp headache started pounding into her head.

[DragonSong]

In the slave markets.

Again.

Ka'lei was curled against his side, exhausted from a night of being forced to walk what felt like all over the city- twice- as their last master tried to find an acceptable place to sell them. Eventually, he'd settled on the seediest market Kai had ever seen and left.

Sighing, he wrapped his arm tighter around his sister and watched, motionless, as the sun began to peek over the tops of the surrounding buildings. Once it was officially "morning" he knew potential buyers would be coming.

This was always the worst part. The waiting, the worrying. A cruel master he could handle- not knowing if he'd be taken from his twin or not was pure torture.

AS if his thoughts had cued her, Ka'lei shifted and murmured in her sleep, feathers fluttering anxiously. He pulled her closer and wrapped his other arm around her, rubbing the spot between her wings soothingly. They'd managed to get this far together; surely that luck would hold out.

[zozee9]

Nitya slammed her eyes shut to block out the light, hoping it would dull the pain. Instead, it got worse. By blocking out her vision, her hearing had gotten stronger—and the headache was caused by her hearing, though she didn't yet realize it. She opened her eyes and kept walking straight. Logic would have told her to go back to the inn, but she decided to look for some medication instead. This headache felt different than any headache she had before.

By the time she made it to the main market, the pain was almost intolerable. Luckily, she knew where the best apothecary was. Unluckily, before she reached the store, someone bumped into her, knocked her over, and stole her purse. "Shit," Nitya whispered under her breath. She had brought a lot of her money with her to go shopping, and she wanted it back. Uneasily standing back up, she started running after the thief. Every step it felt like her brain was crashing into her skull, but she kept running. Her experiences while traveling made her a good runner. Unfortunately, with a dress and a headache, she was not as good of a runner as a young girl.

Abruptly, Nitya stopped. She had no clue where she was, or even how long she had been running. There weren't many places of Essyrn she didn't know, but this was one of them. If the area didn't look so sketchy, she would have sat down somewhere or gone in a building. But her instinct told her not to.

No, not her instinct.

Run! A voice shouted at her. Escape! Another. Get out of here! Run! Disappear! Vanish! Run! More and more voices were joining in, until she couldn't tell what any of them were saying. Nitya brashly turned every which way, looking for the shouters. But all she could find were weary women and suspicious men. No one was talking to her; no one was talking to each other. She could see heads turning, starting to question what this well-dressed woman was doing here, spinning, and Nitya dropped her head down. She didn't want to make eye contact with anyone. She didn't want more voices.

And that was when it hit her. No one was actually shouting at her, it was all in her head. That must have been the cause of the headache too, in one way or another. Her eyes widened. She hadn't been looking at anyone. Why could she hear people? Why could she hear dozens of people? Was she going crazy? Or was there some mage messing in her head?

So, finally, she listened to the voices: she ran. Except instead of running back to where she came from—for she had no idea where that was—she accidentally ran closer and closer to the sketchiest slave market in Essyrn. The voices got louder.

[DragonSong]

"And here we have two rather exotic specimens..."

"I bet if I threw a rock from here I could kill him," Ka'lei grumbled, glaring at the auctioneer.

"You don't have a rock," Kai said mildly. Then, lifting his hands to create a pointed clinking of the chains binding their wrists, he added, "And how would you throw it anyhow?"

"I'd figure something out." His sister gritted her teeth as the man began praising Kai's strength and her "unusual beauty". "Gods, his voice is so annoying."

"Just try to behave for another hour or two, alright?" Kai begged, leaning subtly against her in an effort to give comfort without the people standing around the auction block really catching on. "The sooner we get this part over with, the sooner I can relax."

She snorted. "Relax? You've got to be fucking kidding me-"

"Is that four gold for the girl, sir?"

The twins froze. For the girl?

"No," Kai whispered, shaking his head. it felt like every nightmare he'd ever had was coming true. Please, someone else bid, he prayed silently, grabbing for Ka'lei's hand.

"Four gold, two silver for the girl."

No no no no no. Please.

[zozee9]

Every once in a while, a word would pop out of the jumbled mess in her head. Die! said one. Kill! said another. They were getting vicious, and Nitya had no clue what to do except for run. "Stop," she whimpered quietly. "Stop stop stop stop stop." After a few minutes of running through empty roads, the streets started to get busier. She couldn't hear any of the people in the street—the voices in her head were so loud they were overwhelming her actual hearing. At first she was glad she found a busier area, that meant she was somewhere safer. She stopped running and looked around.

Then she realized just where she was. And it was not safer.

"Shit," Nitya repeated for the second time that morning. But this time, she couldn't even hear herself say it. She could feel the eyes on her, just like earlier. But not it wasn't out of admiration, respect, or even jealousy. It was out of greed. Men were ogling her for her body, women were ogling her for her clothes. She would have turned around and run back the way she came, but she knew this part of town. People would follow her. So she started walking into the marketplace, trying desperately not to make eye contact with anyone.

[DragonSong]

"Sold! Bring the girl down for the gentleman."

Two burly men, slaves themselves, moved forward to take Ka'lei's arms and drag her from the block. She shrieked and swung at one, the chains on her wrists and ankles hampering the blow, but she managed to land a solid hit to his face. He grunted and stumbled back and her wings flared out, beating wildly at the air-

The other man lunged forward, wrapping his arms around her middle to pin her wings to her sides. "No! Let me go, let me go!"

They started to pull her away, to the waiting merchant who had just bought her. And Kai- who had never fought back in his life, always kept his head down, quiet, submissive, obedient Kai- threw himself forward with a roar that probably grabbed the attention of most of the marketplace.

"No!" he shouted, lunging after his sister. Someone, he didn't bother turning to see who, grabbed the chains binding him and he fell to his knees. Still he struggled toward her, eyes fixing desperately on her new master. "Please," he begged, straining against the chains, "Please, you have to take me too-"

"Shut up!" Someone struck the back of his head, hard, and he groaned, seeing stars. "He doesn't have to do anything. Know your place, slave." Another hit, this time making his vision tunnel and he swayed, trying to get his feet under him only to receive another blow.

"Kai!" Fuzzily, he registered Ka'lei shouting. "Let go of me you son of a bitch! Kai! KAI!"

[zozee9]

A piercing scream shot through Nitya's head, breaking apart every other voice that had been shouting at her and almost causing her to fall. Then there was silence. And then, slowly, she started to hear the actual sounds of the marketplace. Whoever had screamed had silenced her head and vanquished her headache.

When a boy screamed, Nitya couldn't help but look up toward the voice. She immediately regret it. The yeller was far away, and she swore she hadn't even looked in his eyes, but her magic proved otherwise. His pleas for help, for his sister, for freedom were not ignorable. She could hear the sharpness of his pain and, in it, she heard her own past cries for freedom. Except his calls were more desperate and lonely than hers. He had someone he was fighting for, a reason to live. She never did. She still didn't.

Nitya pushed herself forward in the crowd, crying. She wanted to save the girl, to help her, to protect her sister. Why were they taking her sister? They had always been together, they deserved to be bought together.

The auctioneer started trying to sell for the boy. Nitya didn't hear any of it.

If only she could buy her sister back. Ka'lei wasn't crying out anymore, she realized. They must have done something to her, knocked her out or gagged her! If she could auction too, if she could just bid higher than the last man, she could have her sister back. What had he bid? Four gold, four silvers?

"Five gold!" shouted out Nitya, now at the front of the crowd.

Astonishment spread across the crowd. Then, after a brief moment of silence, the auctioneer shouted, "Five gold for the boy!" The magic broke at the word 'boy'. That girl—Ka'lei—wasn't her sister. And the girl wasn't being auctioned anymore anyway, the boy was. She had just bought a slave for no reason.

Even worse, she didn't have the money for it. Nitya knew how this worked. She couldn't just leave, they would send some men after her immediately. But she also couldn't pay, her purse had been stolen. Could she manage to connive them? What would she be able to offer to withdraw her bid? Her dress, surely, even her crown was worth more than enough. But people in this part of town liked hard gold, not something that they would hope they could trade off.

As the daunting realization set in that the only thing she might be able to sell was her body, Nitya took a step backward.

"Sold to the lady in purple!"

The man behind her gave her a nudge toward the stage. He wanted to see the next, less expensive option. As Nitya stumbled forward, the heard clinging to her side. Looking down at her right, she saw her purse. She had it the entire time.

[DragonSong]

Kai was dazed, bleeding from a blow to the side of his head that had split skin, and utterly defeated.

Ka'lei was gone. They'd taken her away, he hadn't been able to see where. He'd only caught a glimpse of a gag being shoved in her mouth, a hand coming down across her face as she was dragged after her new master, fighting all the time.

Fighting. His sister was the fighter, not him. Always had been. He didn't even realize what was happening until one of the auctioneer's slaves jerked at the chains connected to his wrists, pulling him forward off the block and toward his new owner.

He moved woodenly, like a puppet, eyes glassy and head bowed. He didn't even bother looking up to see who had bought him. What did it matter?

Just because he didn't fight the way Ka'lei did didn't mean he'd lost his sense of will, of who and what he was. Yes, he'd been submissive before, accepted his lot in life and tried to make the best of it, but that was his life.

Now he was just broken.

[zozee9]

Nitya spent most her money on buying the slave. She didn't know how she had her purse and, at this point, she didn't care. She gazed down at the boy, bowing before her, and sighed. She hadn't wanted a slave. She didn't believe in slavery. Having been a slave herself, even owning a slave felt hypocritical. But what else could she do? She couldn't let a Yoreiqi free, he would be recaptured immediately. Whether she liked it or not, now she had to take care of him. If she was going to have a slave, she better have a damn good one.

"Get up," Nitya demanded. "We're going shopping." Then, quieter, she added, "We'll talk more once we get out of here. This isn't a good place to be. Keep your eyes open, please, make sure no one follows us." She turned around and started walking back to the original market. She knew where she was now, had no more headache, and finally felt in control of herself. And, apparently, in control of him. Nitya sighed again.

[DragonSong]

"As you wish, milady," Kai said, tone flat, face expressionless. He managed to do as she said though, following her out of the market and scanning the area around them for anyone suspicious.

He felt as though he was watching himself walk and talk from somewhere deep inside his mind rather than conscious controlling his actions. He could feel the heat on his skin and feathers, the sheer fabric of his veil against his face, hear the people around them- but none of it felt quite real.

Although that could be attributed to the multiple blows he'd taken to the head, he supposed.

[zozee9]

As soon as they were out of public eyes, Nitya stopped walking and turned toward him. She took a deep breath, pictured herself closing the door to her brain, and looked at him in the eyes. That imagery was the only way she knew how to shut out voices, and it only worked when she had a specific person to block out. In this case, it was him.

"First off, I am not 'milady,' I am a trader. A slightly less-wealthy-than-before trader. Secondly, since you are not to call my milady, or miss, or ma'am, or any other term, you shall call me by my real name. Nitya. And, lastly, as I am surely not going to call you slave or servant or anything else of the like, I find myself resigned to ask for your name." She paused. "And get that blank look off your face. Others have been through far worse situations, I can promise you that. At least Ka'lei is still alive. And in Essyrn. If you're lucky, maybe you'll be able to see her again."

[DragonSong]

He looked up at her. That was a lot of words for his still shocked brain to take in, but he thought he managed most of it.

"Yes, mi- Mistress Nitya." Hopefully she could live with that compromise, because he honestly wasn't sure he could break the habit of deferring to the person who owned him. "My name is Kai."

He was tempted to get angry, to tell her that yes, many people dealt with far worse every day. He knew that. But just because other people were suffering didn't make one person's pain any less valid- his sister was his world, and she'd been taken from him.

Regardless of what she said, he knew it was unlikely- nigh on impossible- that he would ever see Ka'lei again. And gods only knew what they would do to her.

So he simply nodded and murmured, "Forgive me, Mistress Nitya. I will try to do better." He should have protected her. Why couldn't he protect her?

[zozee9]

Mistress was worse than milady, now she sounded like an old lady. Or a slut. "Kai," Nitya repeated slowly. "Simple enough. And I take back what I said before. If you feel the need to use some title, please use Miss."

Nitya turned around and started walking again. "I suppose we had better get to rules. Rule number one: please don't kill me. Rule number two: please don't kill yourself. Rule number three: please don't kill anyone else." She chuckled, although she was quite serious. Desperate people do desperate things, and slaves are often the most desperate of all. "You understand and agree so far?"

[DragonSong]

He nodded woodenly, falling into step behind her again. "Yes, Miss Nitya." Even if he'd wanted to, he didn't think he could work up the energy to go after her or anyone else.

Killing himself had a certain appeal that it never had before, and he noted that thought with vague interest. But he dismissed the idea quickly- if there was an afterlife, Ka'lei would somehow find him in it and kick his ass for taking the coward's way out.

[zozee9]

Nitya couldn't tell if he was honestly agreeing or not. She had a growing suspicion that he would just agree with anything she said. Well, that answered a question she was planning on asking later. He had been a slave for many, many years and worked for at least one abusive owner.

"Rule number four: I will not hit, whip, or hurt you. If I do, you can do the same to me. Deal? What's your age, anyhow?"

[DragonSong]

That managed to get a reaction from him, if only for a moment. A bit of light entered his eyes and he blinked at her, startled. "Yes, Miss Nitya," he said again, but more slowly this time, considering.

Then the light was gone and he dropped his gaze again. "I'm seventeen, Miss Nitya. I'll be eighteen in a few months." Or just about. He and Ka'lei didn't remember their actual birthday, so they'd picked the day they'd last seen their mother to mark the occasion.

[zozee9]

Nitya raised an eyebrow and turned her head around. "Seventeen?" she repeated. Well, he certainly looked that age. She had just assumed he was younger... men his age tended to sell well. She turned her head back forward. "I'm nineteen." She owned a man less than two years younger than her. She didn't know why his age bothered her, but it did.

"Magic?" she asked slowly, assuming no more explanation would be needed.

[DragonSong]

Kai shook his head. "No, Miss Nitya." He didn't really feel like he needed to offer anymore information, but from that same closed-off corner of his mind her heard himself say, "My wings do work though. That is, I can fly, Miss Nitya."

Some people assumed they were merely an exotic, decorative pair of appendages, but his wings actually could lift him in flight if given the chance. Not that he got it often- oh, right, maybe he should mention that.

"I probably can't for another few weeks though, until I molt again," he said, deadpan. "Our last master clipped our wings."

[zozee9]

Nitya scrunched her nose in disgust. She knew people clipped wings, but preferred to try and forget that fact. "Rule number five: no running away. Rule number six: no flying away. If you're alone in here, I can't promise your safety. I am sure you know this, but people like having Yoreiqi on display. Which brings me to rule number seven: stay with me at all times when we are in public. In marketplaces, stay especially close."

Apparently she had been practically running in circles before, for they had already reached the main marketplace where she wanted to go to in the first place. "Next questions—what do you like to wear, and what is your size? You'll have to keep the veil, of course, but otherwise I see no need for you to dress in those drab clothes." She lowered her head down as they entered the crowd. "I'll buy you as much as you want today, as long as you keep it under three silver total. But unless you want to wear the same thing every day, I would recommend buying multiple outfits."

[DragonSong]

He stopped and just stared at her. Was she being serious?

Surprise had him blurting, "I- I don't really have a preference about clothes." After a moment he added, "And I don't know my...size. Big, I guess." He was rather tall and broad after all. He started to open his mouth, brow furrowed, then stopped. No, he shouldn't ask, just keep his head down-

You know what? No. To hell with it. All of that had really only been to protect Ka'lei anyway, what was the point now?

"Why are you doing this, Miss Nitya?" he asked bluntly.