Spirits of the Earth

Continued from here (http://www.spiritsoftheearth.net/smf/index.php?topic=14684.0)!

---

It was a rude awakening, in more than one way.

Pepper groggily awoke with a start to the sound of a stranger's voice, and before she could even sit up, she felt the net close around her. The men, two big ones and a weaselly fellow, came prepared; the wave of dizziness that fell over her was all she needed to know it was infused with iron, binding her magic and sapping her strength, but whatever strength she lost through iron she made up for in raw terror.

Experienced men. Men with nets and shackles.

Slavers. She knew all about slavers. They had been one of her biggest fears growing up on the streets; every street kid had stories of a friend just vanishing, of boys sold off to mines, girls sold off to brothels...

"Soren!" In a panic, Pepper clawed at the net, but the two men holding it gave it a tug that swept her off her knees and onto her back with a thump, further entangling her. "Soren! Soren, help!" But the only answer she received was the mens' laughter and knowing looks.

"Oh, he's long gone now, cupcake," said the weaselly man with a smirk. "High-tailed it once he got his pay."

"What?" Frantic, Pepper searched for a sign--anything--to prove he was lying, but Soren was nowhere in sight.

And neither was the satchel.

"No..." She let out a yelp when the two big men hefted the net up between them, and fear struck her anew, filtering down through the shock. Uselessly, she struggled in the net, kicking and thrashing uselessly. "No! Lemme go, ya goat fuckers! Lemme go! Soren! Soren! Kia damn yer soul, Soren, ya fuckin' lyin' bitch!"

"Well, he sure weren't lyin' 'bout her mouth," one of the big men joked, and the other gave an ugly laugh. "I can think of far better uses fer a dirty mouth."

"Cain'll hear 'bout this!" Pepper yelled as tears began to sting her eyes. "He's a powerful mage! He'll know! And when he does, you'll be the ones that's fucked! I work fer him, y'know! So ya better lemme go, or he'll kill ya!"

But her threats went unheeded, and she was carried off to to the slaver, Tivol, just the same.

---

It was high noon when Pepper and five other captured girls were lead into town and to the auction block.

The net had been replaced with iron chains at her wrists, and an iron collar at her throat, keeping her magic bound and her weak and ill, though Pepper couldn't tell if the nausea was from the iron or from nerves. She'd had her teeth counted, her hair checked for lice, and had been stripped of her student robes and placed in the uniform garb of an unsold slave, a simple linen dress that fit badly and showed too much leg.

Even treated like scum on the streets, she had never felt so dehumanized.

And after putting up a good struggle at first, exhaustion and iron had taken its toll. Now she walked where she was lead, too scared to fight after the things she'd been threatened with.

And too heartbroken.

How could she be so stupid, running off with a strange man like that? Alone. Into the woods. Haha, really? She'd been lead right into his trap, drank his sob story like fine wine. So stupid! All because he'd been nice to her? And flirted a little? And she had believed, actually believed, that he kind of liked her, because she'd kind of liked him. She should have known. She shouldn't have trusted. Had she really forgotten everything from her time growing up? Had she really bought that bullshit her professors preached?

She always liked to believe that she'd be brave if the worst happened, that she'd fight to the bitter end and die before she went down, but as she waited her turn on the block and the other girls were sold all she could do--stupidly, childishly--was cry, rooted in place by a sort of petrified, shivering fear.

One of the big men from that morning, who was standing near her, nudged her sharply. "Oh, stop yer bawlin'. Yer gettin' all red and ugly."

"Fuck yerself with a spoon," she managed to choke out through her tears, and then it was her turn. The man gripped her by the arm and leaned in close.

"Mind yerself when yer up there," he growled. "Ya don't need a tongue to get bought. Now dry yer damned face and move."

He shoved a kerchief into her face, drying her tears for her, and then she was lead up the steps and the bidding began.

The stranger lingered just beyond the crowd, quietly blowing tobacco smoke into the air while the people there were bidding madly and buying one frightened little girl after the other. He was not of a strong opinion regarding slaves and normally preferred relying on free men to work with. Really, he didn't have much use for a scared woman at all. Still when the freckle-covered girl stepped up to the block he grew inquisitive concerning these slaves.

A simple whim, really, and he was bored enough to want to entertain it. Where did they come from? Are they decent slaves or do they still have spirit? Seeing her puffy, red face made him doubt her quality quite a bit. Yet people were already lifting hands to bid. With a long stretch the fellow stepped closer into the crowd.

He was on the shorter side, with dark skin and unorthodox (if rather fancy) clothing and a large object concealed in gray cloth resting on his back. The man's hair was black with only the smallest races of red to contrast, scattered in his braided mane. He had a beard similarly styled, as well as a small series of feathers woven into wiry locks that weren't already bound. Two marks of a similar color to his hair traced down, one over each eye running from his crown until it touched his collarbone. This made the man's eyes seem like stars in the void, bright, amber and tense.

The stranger made it to the front of the crowd, fixing the girl with a glower more pensive than threatening.

It was like a snake had curled up in her belly, twisting and writhing, as her qualities were listed--her health, her strengths, her perks, her status as a mage, all pointedly avoiding her temperament. It was surreal. People were actually bidding. This was actually happening. Her stomach lurched and her throat tightened and she felt like she might get sick, which was weird since she hadn't eaten since the night before. Her vision swam--the iron at work, no doubt--and it became a little hard to breathe.

Maybe she could still escape. When she was bought, she could...she could fight and run away. Or something! Cain would worry, right? He would notice she was gone. He'd do something! He'd try to find her. And her professors when they found out she was missing! After all, she was an investment, right?

...Unless they thought she was angry enough by her punishment to run away, back onto the streets like a feral dog.

The thought brought a shuddering sob with it, and she didn't care what anyone, especially that big bastard over there, thought. What could her professors do, anyway, to find her? Adela was big. She could be taken anywhere, kept anywhere, and no one would ever notice or ever be able to find her or--

Movement caught her eye when a man moved up to the front and glowered at her, and she caught his eye briefly and quickly looked away.

OOC: Sorry I don't have a profile up for her yet... posting from the office. I'll try to get to it soon, though!

BIC:  Elena Strauss (neé Levi) was not comfortable. In fact, discomfort radiated from her and was palpable in the air around her. She had never been to the auction block in Ketra before, and didn't enjoy being here now. She could, of course, afford slaves. Elena had been born into a wealthy merchant family and married into a wealthier one. But that meant, both her and her husband agreed, that they could also afford to pay people. Yet here she was, in the slave market, with the full intention fo buying... someone.

Well-dressed and worried-looking, with an infant swaddled in a sling, Elena looked out of place. She was petite, fair skinned, with thick wavy brown hair that made her look even smaller. Her large, maroon eyes flitted back and forth between the baby and the girls being paraded on the block, her heart plummeting through her stomach with each one. She wishes it would just be over with. But she was sure there was something she needed to do. Or someone she needed to help. But didn't they all need help?

The reasons for her being here were murky even to Elena. She had always, since she was a child, had bouts of clairvoyance. They came intermittently and unpredictably and were never general. Rather, they were always connected to someone she had a particularly strong bond with. Already it would happen with the baby. Occasionally with her husband, though their marriage had been as practical as romantic. And, once upon a time, with her brother. Her lost brother. She hadn't seen him in years. Before her baby, before her marriage. Not since he'd left. Sometimes, in the first few years after the fallout between Soren and Kirnan that led to her losing two brothers in one day, Elena would get flashes of him. Where he was or what he was feeling. But even that had ended more than a year ago.

Until last night. She hadn't actually seen him or where he was, though she had a sense of the forest, but she'd been suddenly aware of him. And then of a confused tumble of feelings. She hadn't really been able to tease them out. She had no idea what it was about. But she'd known she needed to come here today. She knew there was a girl. And she knew the girl would be here, today. For sale.

So Elena watched, miserable, as each girl was brought forward, waiting for something to click. It was awful; she wanted to help all of them. And what if she was wrong, or if she missed the right one? Could she really help this girl, help her, by buying her? But what else could she do? She was a small woman with an infant. She certainly couldn't free anyone by force. Break them out. You'd need a small army.

These thoughts and similar were stewing in her when Pepper came onto the block and... snap, she knew. This was the girl. She let the bidding go on for a bit before, cautiously, awkwardly, raising her hand to bid on the girl. Her eyes darted nervously to the man who'd just moved to the front of the crowd. Was he holding on to be a late bidder? Maybe he knew her? Or maybe he was someone 'in the business.' She didn't know, but when someone bid against her, she raised her hand again to signal she wanted to bid again. This was just awful and she wanted more than almost anything for it to be over, but she also wanted to win.

The fellow stared for a long time, moving a hand to scratch at his cloth-covered shoulder. Unfortunately for the woman with the sixth sense a moment after she bid again he rose his hand. Mumbling something under his breath, the man shifted uncomfortably after brushing up against a taller man who seemed generally uninterested. It was rather unclear as to what possessed him to bid but his mind started to shift to what exactly he'd do once (and if) he won.

This bidding business was awful. Just awful. She could hardly believe that she was bidding, money!, on another human life. But she wouldn't, of course, 'keep' the girl or anything... She just wanted to help her. Get her out of her. Elena was a healer and if the girl had some skill as a mage, maybe she could work as an apprentice until she'd learned enough skills to support herself? Or maybe, maybe once she had gotten the girl out of here, she'd know something about Soren. They must be connected somehow, right?

Oh gosh, Elena suddenly thought, maybe they were lovers. But she seemed awfully young...

She was distracted by these thoughts when the baby swaddled against her chest began to cry. Confident that she was the highest bidder, she took her attention away from the auction to comfort the child. It was instinct. She didn't even think about it. Didn't think about how, if she took her eyes away, she might miss another bidder. And that is exactly what happened. When the fellow in the front of the crowd placed a higher bid on Pepper, Elena completely missed it.

Soevak Ret was not having a good day so far. Sure, on the one hand he'd had a successful job and had lived to kill another day, but on the other hand, this injury of his had nearly cost him his life half a dozen times over in the course of the last job. He poked at the festering gash across his side, grimacing and cursing himself. Just sloppy. He had to do something about this, he thought as he leaned back on his bed. He couldn't keep working in this state, eventually it was going to get him killed... and Vak had no illusions about his probability of having a pleasant afterlife. Replacing the bandage on the cut, quickly washing his face, and throwing his buttoned shirt and feathered cap back on, he headed out the room door and started for the streets.

He had to fix this before he returned to Connlaoth, he knew. The injury's persistence had been caused by magic, and it would take magic to fix it- if it had been some sort of poison he'd have almost certainly heard of it... and poison didn't cause nightmares like that. Shuddering, Vak shirked away from the thought and turned his attention to the various stores and services the place offered. No, no, no good, clearly a con...

Then he noticed the slave market, with an auction clearly in progress. Vak stopped to listen- he wasn't exactly keen to buy a slave of any sort, especially this far from home, but he'd always had a certain fascination with the way people acted about it. Most of those bidding could see a sobbing, desperate wreck, and yet they still threw down the money as easily as if they were buying a new set of horseshoes or a shirt. And they said he was cruel. Heh.

The assassin was about to turn away and continue with his business- so far the auction was nothing new- when they announced that the next up was a mage. A mage? That was rare... and possibly to his benefit. Maybe, just maybe this girl could be of help in finding a remedy for his current state. As the bidding started, Vak made it into the crowd, keen eyes prying for any figures that stood out- or figures that had a particular lack of standing out. Two caught his eye- a woman carrying a child (what lunatic brought a kid to a slave auction, was what he wanted to know), and a rather more mysterious figure. Making a quick mental note to keep an eye on those two and scratching his chin, he considered whether it was worth the trouble- he had the funds, especially after that last kill, but was it worth it? He grimaced, held a hand to his side, and decided he was to the point where he'd try about anything. He waited for the next bid... and doubled it.

It came down to two people, a man (who wasn't very friendly looking, being the glowering man from before) and a woman with a child (a child? Really? Here?), and Pepper found herself desperately wishing for the mother. Deep down, she knew women could be just as nasty as men, and that being a mother meant nothing as far as a person's character went (after all, her own mother had abandoned her--no nurturing maternal instincts there, obviously) and yet she seemed her best hope. She seemed the most likely to understand.

At least, she hoped so. Because she didn't want to go to the man. It was sick, so sick, that she felt relieved that she was the highest bidder.

But then something horrible happened. The mother was distracted by the child, and in that moment, a third bidder came in and doubled the woman's already high bid. WHAT? It was probably the nerves and illness and stress, but Pepper actually let out a startled, choking laugh, for it was surreal to learn of one's own monetary worth. That would be enough to pay off a nice chunk of her student debt.

But the woman wasn't bidding again. The child still held her attention. Heart hammering in her chest, Pepper silently pleaded for her to pay attention, but the auction carried on.

"...Going once! Going twice...!"

The man groaned out a series of swear words in his own tongue and rubbed his forehead, not entirely sure bidding higher was even worth it. He had no shortage of gold and very little to do with it but this still would take its toll on what he had. Did the fellow even have enough to compare to the newest bidder?

One more try, or he was done. The foreigner lifted a hand into the air to raise the stakes.

That was an exorbitant amount for a slave, even if it was a mage, and even the auctioneer looked surprised. Still he shouted out his chant, making a last call for bids.

OOC: Thought I'd move things along a bit. Hope you don't mind, Rhi! Shouldn't change anything for the other two bidders...


BIC: Elena hadn't even noticed the new bidder come into the fray. Avi was still fussing, but he stopped crying just in time for his mother to hear, "Going once... going twice...!" She wrenched her attention back up. Oh no. Was that her bid? Had someone else bidding since her? How could she have missed what was going on?

But then the foreigner lifted his hand again, and bought Elena the time to figure out the situation. Or at least to figure out that she was no longer in the lead. Hurriedly, she threw her hand in the air to top the man's bid. It wasn't until after she'd done this that she suddenly realized how much higher these bids had become. While they had a lot of money, neither Elena nor her husband were landed nobles who'd have money no matter what. They were merchants, owned businesses, and she knew that money didn't multiply itself when you just threw it away. Well, that didn't matter, she told herself. It could always come out of her dowry.

She bit her lip, waiting with baited breath until the man bellowed, "Going three times to the young lady in the corner."

A wave of relief swept over Elena. She'd won. Oh, now she could get out of here, take this girl home and feed her and dress her, and then figure out who she was. She pushed her way through the crowd to the small corral on the side of the auction block where the monetary transactions took place, careful to shield the baby. She realized, of course, that she shouldn't have brought him here. But she hadn't quite made it to the point yet where she could be separate from him.

"Well, well, ma'am," the slave handler said as she reached where he was waiting with Pepper, "that turned out to be quite the pricey bid! Hope she's worth it to you. Great business for us, either way, of course," he grinned.

"Yes, well," Elena frowned, a little awkward. She wanted to leave. "Where should I send the payment to?"

"Send?!" the big man laughed. "Oh, no no. Sorry, ma'am, but this is a cash and carry transaction only."

Cash and carry. Elena's stomach dropped. She didn't carry that kind of money! In trading goods and crops and spices, everything was done in ledgers, and debts or surplusses, safe, secure monetary transactions. Not huge sums of money thrown around in the market place. "Well, I don't have that much gold with me here," she argued, trying to sound important, "that would be insane. But I can pay a quarter now, and send a man back here today with the rest, plus an additional sum to make up for the time between then and now."

The slave handler was getting annoyed. His job wasn't to deal with rich young ladies who don't know how the business works. "Couldn't send someone down here who knew what he was doing?" he growled at her. "If you can't pay, why not take that pretty little baby back home where you belong. Tomorrow you can send someone else to do this for you."

"But... But I can pay," she argued, the vague startled look she'd had since entering the slave market growing to something closer to clear desperation. "I can pay today, I just need..."

But the handler ignored her. "Oy! You two gentlemen!" he shouted to the two other men who'd been bidding on Pepper, gesturing with his arms for them to come over to the corral. "Either of you who were interested in this pretty little mage actually able to pay for her?"

Elena gaped. What was she going to do? She looked to Pepper now, mouth still open, feeling momentarily helpless.

The short foreigner was steady in his approach, withdrawing from beneath baggy, decorative robes two very large sacks of gold. One was withdrawn as he approached and the other arrived when he closed the gap. He mumbled another curse irritably and shot the highest bidder an irritated glower. "All of it. More than enough. No ask where from." very shortly he moved to shove the bags into the slaver's hands. "Take it! Being generous to you!" He growled.

And should nobody intervene he'd be fixing his gaze back on Pepper, seeming more on the aggravated side rather than pleased to have this chance. Whatever was on his back twitched slightly despite his calm posture. The assassin still had a chance to interrupt.

Torak didn't actually see much of what was going on. He just decided to observe.

It was unusual to see mage's at auctions. Especially as what was being bid for. So Torak had observed from afar, practicing his skills as a Shadow Wolf. He had found he enjoyed discipline, and good work ethic. He still had to kill people, but he did it with a professionalism unrivalled by his earlier "attempts", as he now called them, at being a good assassin.

So he watched and waited, seeing if he needed to intervene. And he clearly did. Torak had managed to come into significant money after killing a very wealthy target, who was a threat to a wealthy nobleman. Torak decided to up the stakes.

"I will double this man's money. That is my offer." Torak pulled four equally sized enchanted bags from his pouch, all filled with masses of accumulated coinage from clients. He was a busy assassin, but not a poor one.

The only reason Torak bid at all was out of mercy to the Mage girl.

Really? Others had bid after that? What possible reasons could those two have for being willing to pay so much? Soevak shrugged as the auction continued and the girl was sold to the woman from earlier. Maybe they just had limitless pockets. He waited a moment to see if they had anyone else to bring out... and was glad he did, as he soon heard some sort of commotion coming from the collection spot. Well, he was in it this far, might as well stick to it. Vak caught up just in time to hear the other man's offer. By rights the slave would go to that one, since he had the second highest bid, but Vak had an idea...

"If you can't ask where it's from, the money's probably not much good. Don't want the wrong people to come disturb your fine operation here, do you?" Tipping his coinpurse over and emptying out an assortment of coins worth what the other man had offered, he held out his hand and grinned. "Johnathan Strel. I'm here on business, looking to see if it would be worth starting up another business here- and from the looks of it I may just require your services in the future... though I suppose I might have a look around for other sources..." Vak lied easily- none of the usual signs of deception would have been visible.... though the hint he dropped came off about as subtle as a brick to the head. Now to see if it worked, or if he was getting rusty....

And then the other one got involved. Brilliant! This was turning into a three ring circus around this one girl. This newcomer though, there was something familiar about him. Something very familiar... oh. The assassin had an awareness when it came to others of his occupation, others who had the same sort of skills, and this one fit the bill. Common sense screamed at him to get out- in his current state risking involvement with anyone like that would be criminally stupid... but he had his pride. "Oh, is that so?" He hesitated- this was getting far too expensive for him. He could pay it, sure, but that was about his limit- at least if he didn't want to take a few side jobs to get back home. All for one girl? Who in all probability would only be able to point him in the right direction at best? Not worth it. Definitely not worth it... but another pain in his side changed his mind. "I could match that," he said, just barely resisting the urge to grit his teeth in pain.

The foreigner groaned with clear agitation. The other men so quickly involving themselves were getting on his nerves. "Fine then!" Clearly not a businessman or as persistent as the others, he moved to take his money back. This gesture may have been quite insulting to the slave handler but any movements or statements of protest would be met by a dangerous glower. The bags were returned beneath the folds and almost seemed to vanish completely.

"Not just gold. No matter." Then he began to study the others. None of them seemed particularly petty enough to just take the woman home and have her clean their dishes. Something clicked in the man's mind and he turned to look at Pepper again, squinting. "Lucky you. Very lucky." He said with irritation.

This was turning into a mess, and the slave handler was beginning to grow impatient. The mage hadn't been the last slave, either, and there were several others left to auction off. They needed to get this transaction wrapped up so he could move onto the others.

He fixed "Johnathan" with an interested look, and took his hand in a firm grip, giving it a businesslike shake. "It's a pleasure, but a businessman like yourself surely understands we got a business to run ourselves. And ya can't run a business off of hope and promises," he said with a grin.

"Top this gentleman's offer," he said, nodding to Torak, "and she's yours. Otherwise, first come, first served." He was clearly interested in seeing how much more he could weasel out of the man. Either way, they had made a killing here today; Tivol's investment had paid off handsomely.

Pepper watched the men barter over her fate and threw the woman a desperate look. No. She couldn't have lost. Of all the people here, she wanted most to go with her, for her wild assumption had been confirmed. This wasn't a woman who dealt in slaves; this was a woman who was dreadfully out of her element--which made her wonder why she was trying to buy her. But none of that mattered, now; that hope had been dashed, and it was finally down to two of the men.

When the third--the glowering one--spoke, she gave him an incredulous look.

Lucky?

There were a lot of things she wanted to say to that, but fear glued her mouth shut, so she only shook her head, sniffling. This was not lucky. This was the furthest thing from lucky.

Elena felt helpless and brushed aside. And after she had won the auction! What on earth was she going to do now? But when Pepper met her eyes, she knew she had to do something. Firming up her resolve, she turned back to the men who were pouring ridiculous amounts of money onto the table in front of the slave handler.

Seriously, who carried around that kind of money? Just the weight of it had to be a burden, not to mention how noisy it must be. But clearly she wasn't going to get anywhere with these men by offering more money. What kinds of lives they led where they led, devoid enough of responsibilities to casually lay out this kind of money and risk losing it by carrying it around, she didn't know. But she'd clearly have to think of something else.

So she turned to Torak and 'Jonathan Strel' (who she didn't recognize as any businessman she had ever encountered), the two men still with a chance.

"Please," she pleaded with them, "please, I have the money. She's my sister," she lied, and continued before they'd have a chance to look for a family resemblance, "or my half-sister. An illegitimate child of my father's. I only just learned of her recently and I've been looking for her but they," she gestured and shot a nasty glare at the slave handler, "found her before I could. Please. He lost her when she was little, when her mother died of consumption." She'd let them make the obvious assumption about what kind of woman the 'mother' probably was. And it was far from unheard of for wealthy men to keep in touch with their bastards without ever publicly acknowledging them or taking them in. "She was gone before he even found out about the death. Do you have children? Have you ever lost one?"

Elena's performance was graced with the authenticity; after all, as a new mother, she had spent the last few months running on exhaustion and raw emotion alone. And she had the harried look of someone who hadn't slept for more than two hours at a time in three months and might snap at any moment. Just the thought of the story she made up was bringing tears, unbidden, to her eyes. And this girl, after all, was somebody's child. The thought of her own child's freedom being sold away filled her with anguish and ferocity, and she clung to the baby at her chest.

And now, so close to the girl, she was beginning to feel Pepper's fear, too. It wasn't common that her empathy would pick up on strangers, but the girl's feelings were too strong not to have an effect on Elena.

"Please, clearly money isn't important to you," she said to them, her voice strained with emotion, "but my husband is a very well-connected merchant. I am a healer. I could get you anything. Please."

This situation was beginning to irritate Torak a lot. Torak was clearly offering money, and he was being shown up by this woman's sob story.

"Fine. If you are that desperate, then how is this?" Torak tapped another coin bag, and it became weighted, the coins filling the bag being deposited into it from a magically enchanted pocket dimension. The coins weren't real though. He hadn't earned these. These were all stolen, filled in via an enchanted coin buried in a bank.

He held it out for everyone to see. Half the money he was offering was someone else's, but he didn't care. He had nothing else to spend his money on, and he didn't want to waste it now.

Although things were out of the foreigner's hands he continued to observe. He must not have had anything better to do but he took his time in registering what each party had to say. As things got more tense with money the fellow bowed his head, placing his face in a hand and beginning to chuckle. It started to grow louder as money was produced and shown. All this for some random slave girl? What was he thinking? What were they all thinking?

Then the man lifted his head and asked Pepper a question, "What'd you think, mm?" The fellow was using a joking tone for obvious reasons.

Soevak just waited patiently through the woman's sob story; if that sort of thing bothered him (and he wasn't entirely certain it was true to begin with) he'd have a different line of work. Besides, he wasn't planning on keeping the girl for long in any case. So he just crossed his arms and listened with half an ear throughout the whole bit, turning most of his attention to the newcomer. Wait a minute, did she just say she was a healer? Interesting... He could use this.

Drawing forth the remainder of his coin and holding it out, nearly matching Torak's, he turned to Elena and said, "Perhaps we can make a deal, miss. Give me the difference between these, and we'll have a word about it later. If we can't come to an agreement, I'll reimburse you. Otherwise, I don't see this working out for either of us." For once the assassin was entirely honest- he had no reason to deceive either of these two beyond... well, the common sense bit of lying about his profession and so on.

"Yes, deal, of course!" Elena agreed hastily at Soevak's offer. It was a gamble, obviously, but it seemed like the only option she had left to her. She added her own money to the table, topping Torak's offer by a moderate margin. She bit her lip, looking expectantly at the slaver handler.

As the woman launched into her story, Pepper's eyed widened and something within her clenched. What. What? It shocked her right out of her crying and she stared at the woman, mouth dropping open and heart beating a little faster.

She could see no resemblance between them, no commonalities beyond their fair skin--which on Pepper was freckled---but the woman looked Serenian, at least, just like Pepper. But...a half sister? Never once had she entertained the idea that she had siblings, but it could work. That would explain everything. That explained the woman's desperation, why she was bidding on her, fighting to win her. And the story added up. Pepper had never known her mother, had no memory of her and no knowledge over what ever became of her. She'd always assumed she'd been abandoned (which some of the meaner kids suggested) or that she'd died when she was too little to remember.

It was scary how much it fit.

But...how? How did she find her? Unless...the college! She did attend a rather well known mage college, after all, so maybe...?

A sister...?

A family?

And yet it might all be ripped away from her again as soon as she'd found it, and she prayed to Kia for a miracle, only snapped from the scene unfolding when the other man--the man who had lost--spoke to her.

"Wha?" she said, for she hadn't been paying attention to what he'd said, too distracted over the people that were currently deciding her fate. She kept her voice low, because she didn't want to miss a word, and even as she spoke she didn't take her eyes off the woman and the other man.

The slave-handler eyed the money piled before him and quickly began to gather it up into bags. "Done!" he said, and gave Pepper a push toward them. How they worked the issue out was their business and as long as they paid, he didn't care what they did after that.

He handed the key to her manacles and collar to Soevak. "The bindings are iron. As long as she has the collar, she can't use magic," he explained to the both of them, clearly implying that removal was at their own risk. Then, with a polite dismissal, he gathered up the coin and returned to the auction.

"Well little girl. Seems you are stuck with the sob story. Funny, I would have released you. Never mind. I will keep my hard earned money." Torak withdrew the money, and as he put it in his pocket, the bag fell.

Out of the bag slid various miscellaneous items, and lots of weapons. 4 daggers came out, matching the style of weapon that the helmet that also slid out. A whole bundle of crossbow bolts, for the crossbow on the bracer. A few bombs, unlit, and one impact bomb. Torak had no time to react as it hit the floor and blew up, not harming anyone, but certainly drawing attention to him. Alongside the rest of this, came several dozen bound contracts. But Torak didn't see these. Torak was blinded from looking at the explosion that had gone off.

Elena was almost weak with relief when the deal was done - or, done with the slavers, anyway - and she immediately pulled Pepper to her and embraced her. She might still not know who this girl was, but the gesture wasn't staged. Elena always lost her heart too quickly, and the care and concern she felt for Pepper were genuine. Whatever reason she'd been compelled to come down here, she felt responsible for the girl's safety.

"Are you okay?" she asked quietly while still holding onto Pepper.

The child swaddled in between them squirmed, and Elena released her embrace, but held Pepper at arms length for a moment and properly studied her, looking for signs of abuse... and clues to her identity. Who are you? she wondered. Why are we here? It could wait. For now, she felt nearly as fiercely for Pepper as she did for the baby.

But they were only halfway there. Or less. There was still this "business man" to come to terms with. She moved to place Pepper protectively behind her, keeping one hand on Pepper's, and turned back to Soevak. Her eyes flashed for a moment when he had been handed the keys to Pepper's bonds, but she reminded himself that he had paid the far larger amount. And as much as she wanted to release the Serenian girl from the iron, there would be no profit in arguing with the man. This whole business was exhausting.

"There's no reason to stay here in this awful place," she began saying to Soevak. "If you'd like, we can come to terms at," she was about to invite him to her house, where they could take care of the girl and work out their terms in some privacy, when Torak's bomb hit the ground. Elena gasped, clinging with one hand to Pepper and with the other to her child. When the dust settled the sound of the explosion was replaced by the loud cries of the baby. Panicked, the young mother dropped to the ground, kneeling to examine and comfort the child. Gods, if that man had hurt her infant... "Avi, Avi, Avi," she muttered to herself while tending to the child. Even if there was no apparent harm, the sound or the flash could have damaged his hearing or his sight...

When she was satisfied that there was no immediate risk to the child and she had subdued his shrieks, Elena turned to look up at Torak, her eyes flashing. Gone was the weariness, the desperation, the startled out-of-her-depth wealthy woman. Elena's eyes blazed like a wild bear's whose cub had just been threatened. She. would. kill. him.

The man was prepared to eventually respond to the slave, not seeming to care about the tension between the others, but the bomb went off and for a few seconds everything was obscured. When it was done he was somewhere else, close to the man who dropped the item.

His footing was set for a potential quarrel and the glower had returned to him. His left hand stuck out in front of him holding a short, slightly curved blade while his other hand had just drawn another blade from behind him. He remained still for as long as the man did not attack but the foreigner was almost as furious as the mother. A single red feather floated around him, slow to reach the ground and soundless.

Just as well the man was trying to figure out what exactly happened. He glanced for a split second to the source of the harmless explosion and started to put things together in his mind. Curtly the fellow spoke up. "Go... Take. Leave."

Vak had seen the explosion coming. In fact, he'd recognized the sort of bomb, and knew it would do no real harm... but an act was an act, and traveling entrepreneurs weren't known for being nonchalant when faced with explosions. When the bomb fell. he jumped clumsily away, landing sprawled on the ground about a foot away. Scrambling to his feet, he put on an indignant face and walked right up to Torak. "Careful with things like that, imbecile! You could have killed someone! Namely me! You ought to be arrested for this!"

Soevak huffed as he turned to Pepper and Elena. "If you'd kindly step aside so I can unlock her manacles? And could we be going soon? I'd rather take care of this before some other idiot blows something up." The assassin tapped his foot and folded his arms; and this was genuine annoyance, no act. A simple auction like this shouldn't have gotten anywhere near this complicated, and the stunt Torak just pulled really did irk him. What kind of idiot just carried explosives around with him, especially unsecured? It was just unprofessional. Admittedly though, he had another motive for wanting to get moving. Elena's glare hadn't escaped his notice, and while the look would probably scare any normal man with a fragment of sanity about him, people who carried bombs around a city... weren't exactly normal. He'd antagonized Torak to keep up his act, but he didn't think pressing the issue was wise.

Torak heard everything that they were saying, and hurried in picking everything up. Everything but his assassination contracts, which remained on the floor, bound in red wax seals, with all of them containing incriminating details of noblemen, and evidence against him.

Torak began walking away, "dropping" a smoke bomb next to them all. He would not be cheated of this prize. The smoke bomb exploded with a boom, and spewed smoke everywhere.

Another pair of eyes were watching the scene unfold in the slave market. They weren't concerned with the mage girl or how much anyone paid for her or whose sister she was or wasn't. They were only interested in the assassin. The clumsy assassin! But if Torak didn't see all of what fell out of the bag, they did. And the smoke bomb was the perfect opportunity to retrieve the bound contracts. Once the smoke filled the clearing, they darted in and grabbed the bundle, fading back into the streets of Ketra. They waited until they were decently far down an alley, away from the market, before opening one of the wax-sealed envelopes.

Oh. The eyes widened. This would certainly be interesting to the Red Jackal.

They closed the envelope again, stashed the contracts beneath the ribbing of a bodice, and disappeared.

Those weren't the only wolves in the area. Canis Rufus had a mind to expand, and had sent small scion groups out into Serendipity and Adela to find suitable places to take up business. During all the bidding and bartering, this wolf had inched closer to the exchange area. The key was exchanged, the slaver pulled back the coins preparing to stow them in chests nearby. Then that Shadow Wolf, who was not part of the group sent here, dropped a flash grenade. Weren't Shadow Wolves supposed to be about stealth? Well the flash was a great distraction. The Wolf used the moment to get behind the partitions, into the slavers side of the stall. And what perfect timing for the smoke grenade. With the small amount of magic the Wolf had he undid all the locks within fifty feet with a snap of his fingers. He couldn't do anything else, but at least his one spell was powerful. Under the cover of the smoke the little wolf began emptying all the gold into his magic sack. The slavers would not be happy, but the Soot Wolves would really be able to move into the area with the amount of gold they were coming into. All the slaves would be realizing they were loose soon, and that extra distraction would be all the wolf needed to escape. Before the smoke was even clear, thank goodness there was no wind today, the Wolf had all the gold the slavers had locked away, and was dashing off into the chaos of choking onlookers.

Pepper was still shaken from the first explosion when  the second went off with a boom. Smoke filled the air, and with a squeak Pepper dropped to a crouch beside the woman, eyes shut and hands over her ears, which were still ringing from the first blast. By then, the commotion had drawn a lot of attention as people in the crowd shouted in alarm--and yet not all those cries were cries of fear.

Some were of elation.

The smoke was still thick in the air, stinging Pepper's eyes, when she felt the manacles slide from her wrists and hit the ground with a metallic thud. The collar around her neck felt looser, too, and with shaking hands she reached up to feel at it--and found it had opened. Heart beating fast, she tore the collar free and tossed it away and then, without skipping a beat, she grabbed the woman by the wrist and pulled her to her feet.

"C'mon!"

She didn't know how it had happened or why, but Kia was apparently smiling on her today! She didn't wait for the woman's response before tugging her into a run as the smoke finally began to clear and other freed slaves began to flee around them. All of them but the most broken ones, who had lost enough hope to find freedom some sick joke.

Kia, you old hag, sorry for calling you a bitch all those years! Pepper prayed as they went, not daring to look behind them. You're actually pretty alright. Just get us outta here now, yeah? Please?

OOC: Somehow the large amount of things that seemed to have happened are making for a short post...

BIC: Elena was torn between following Soevak and destroying Torak. How would this small young woman with a baby swaddled against her destroy a large armed man? That question didn't enter her head, so she didn't need to bother answering it. But in a moment, she didn't have to answer any of the questions, because the smoke bomb went off and then... What were those sounds? Were people escaping?

But Pepper grabbed her and pulled her through the smoke, and Elena didn't resist. Clutching Avi, she ran alongside the girl, bumping into someone only once or twice. After a few minutes of running, not really knowing what direction they were going, the pair finally escaped the smoke.

Elena continued to run a few moments after this, wanting to put a bit more distance between them and the melee behind them. But then she slowed and eventually stopped. She looked frazzled, and frankly exhausted. She'd slowed Pepper with her since the girl was holding onto Elena's wrist, but she didn't hold onto Pepper to make her stay. Instead just looked at the girl. Would she still stay now? Why should she? But Elena felt... Well, obviously she was curious, she wanted to know why she'd been drawn in to this girl. But even besides that, she felt bonded to her somehow.

"Are you... are you okay?" She didn't know what else to ask. For the moment, Soevak had left her mind.

The foreigner was prepared for the second smoke bomb, but the third one which completely enveloped the area? The source of that was truly an enigma to him. Two blades were drawn and he was quick to prepare for some sort of fight-- then people started cheering. This caused the dark-skinned fellow to start laughing, followed by some coughing of course.

Sheathing one blade and keeping the other the lad decided to follow the briefly open path taken by the slave and mother. As he too escaped the smoke he slowed down. After all, it was not his intention to follow either of them. Instead the man settled down, turning to face the smoke while making sure it didn't envelope him again.

_____

Within the smoke a riot was brewing. Handlers and guards were moving to fight liberated slaves as the air remained obscured. Some simply ran while others fought viciously.

A short, older man with a long but thin beard cussed loudly and growled, "My investments, all going up in smoke, LITERALLY!"

Nearby a much larger and more imposing figure stood, rusty mace in hand. The old man turned to it and cussed before spouting, "Don't just stand there! I'll not see my family's name spat upon in such a manner! Bring them back!-- Nay! Kill any damnable slave you find! I'll have the head of whatever weasel did this!"

The larger one simply snorted at first, turning its head to search the area for anyone. "...There are civili--"

"Are you so stupid that you cannot tell a slave from a pedestrian?! Go! Go now!"

And so the occasional bloodcurtling scream joined the chorus of chaos. The large figure was attacking what slaves remained; hopeless or not.

And Vak had thought matters had been out of hand before... that would teach him to complain, he supposed. Oddly enough, the man didn't seem the least bit disturbed by all the chaos unfolding around him- his only reaction was a slight sneer at the clumsiness of the whole thing. Unless whoever started this had the sole purpose of causing chaos to begin with, surely they could have found a better way of handling things than starting what amounted to a riot? Hrmph, nobody seemed to have any subtlety these days.

Peering into the smoke after both the trader and the two women- all of whom had run off somewhere- he stroked his chin and pondered the matter. The trader had given him a lousy product, and while he preferred not to kill if he didn't have a contract, that had been a lot of money he'd given for nothing. If he was quick, he could get it back. On the other hand, the women had what he really wanted- a chance at getting closer to a cure for his condition. He'd lost his bartering chip, but this mayhem might very well have given him another- after all, there was a decent chance of them getting attacked before they could reach safety, and neither of them struck the assassin as a fighter. Besides, his instincts told him the mother- he assumed she was the mother of the kid she was carrying around, at least- was probably a gentler sort, the sort that would lend a hand for nothing in return, if he played his cards right.

With one last darting glance after the slaver, he took off, moving effortlessly through the crowd and smoke. He wasn't particularly fast- if he tried sprinting or any of his normal acrobatics it would likely reopen his wound- but his somewhat fancy clothes made him an easy mark for the thugs to identify and avoid, so there was no danger of being waylaid as long as he was alone. Once or twice he saw a fleeing slave attacked by one of the slavers, and lent his swift and efficient assistance to the poor soul; partly out of a sense of mercy or empathy, but mostly due to his irritation at the slavers' policy. Who killed good merchandise like that? Just wasteful. Besides, these thugs were clumsy enough that he didn't even need his knives to finish them. Just one quick strike to the throat and he'd be on his way.

Soon enough he was free of the worst of the melee, and he could see the women up ahead- they looked unharmed, for the moment at least. Hopefully none of the slavers would spread out too far: in the chaos of the smoke and fighting he'd been comfortable enough dispatching them, as anyone who saw either wouldn't have time to note his face or would have their own problems to deal with, but he'd rather not draw too much attention to himself in the more open streets...

When the woman slowed, so did Pepper. She didn't fight it, for she was out of breath herself with a sharp stitch in her side. Panting, she bent forward and rested her hands on her knees, cursing the fact that she'd gotten so comfortable at the college, sitting around practicing spells and reading. When she got back, she'd have to change up her routine a little, because this was ridiculous.

Raising her head at the woman's question, she paused and blinked. Just as when the woman had asked her earlier, she wasn't sure how to answer, because it was equal parts yes and no. So she settled on something more neutral.

"I'm..." Pepper thought for a second, and then continued. "I'm better." She straightened up and forced a tired smile, reaching up to push her hair out of her face and wipe away some sweat. She didn't quite look at the woman, feeling oddly vulnerable--and not just because she'd lost her concealing robes.

"Thanks. Fer whatcha did. I dunno what I'd--I mean, I don't really know what to say, honest. Ya saved me, and talk feels awful cheap fer somethin' like that..." She trailed off, and let out a frustrated sound. "I'm awful shitty at this, but I'm grateful, I just dunno how to..."

And then Pepper gave up trying to articulate at all and hugged the woman instead, now that her hands were free and she could. She was careful of the baby between them but the gratitude, and desperation, came through the clinging gesture clearly enough. That tiny mother was a safe space and kind soul in all the awfulness, her knight in shining armor, and she didn't want to let go. While she hated admitting how terrified she was, even if only through a gesture, she didn't care enough then to try to act brave.

But a piercing scream rent the air, and it was followed by more. The hair all along Pepper's arms and the back of her neck stood on end as bloodcurdling cries sounded off in chorus--from the direction of the slave block--and her body went stiff. Eyes a little wet, and now wide with fear, she pulled free of the embrace and grabbed the woman's hand in a crushing grip. She didn't want to know what was happening.

And she didn't want that other man, the one that had gone in on her with the woman, to find them.

She gave the woman's hand a tug. "Let's go!"

Elena hadn't really meant 'how is your emotional state.' She'd really wanted to know... what? Well, if they'd hurt her somehow, or some way... But it didn't really matter now. Soon they could be home and she could stick her in a hot bath and decent clothes and feed her and then, hopefully, learn what had brought them together. (Not to mention do the same for poor Avi. An eventful morning for an infant!) But Elena wasn't thinking about this as much anymore. They were together, that's all that mattered.

"You don't have to thank me," she told the girl gently. "I just... I had to. I couldn't..." Elena didn't know how she would explain, but soon she didn't have to, because Pepper was in her arms. She held onto Pepper, pressing her face against the girl's hair. "We can talk about it when we get home," was all she said. And when she said 'home,' she meant it. But of course, there was still the matter of...

The screams from the slave market reached them and fear coursed through her, her eyes going wild. Those cries, those sounds. Her mouth opened to say something but went dry. She was about to run with Pepper when she saw Soevak at the end of the alley. For the moment, she was frozen to the spot. Obviously they needed to get away, far away, and quickly. But... without that man, she would have lost the bid entirely. She might have lost Pepper entirely. She owed him. Not just the money (though she supposed she owed him that, too), she owed him a favor.

So, mouthing a silent apology to Pepper and making the strongest promise that she could in her heart that she wouldn't let anything else happen to this girl while she was able to protect her, she waved her arms to Soevak to make sure he could tell which way they went. Then she grabbed Pepper's hand, clutched Avi to her, and sprinted as fast as she could in current circumstances.

They ran down the road for several minutes, and she continued pulling Pepper along after they seemed clear of the melee. Until finally the neighborhood began to change, the streets became greener and the houses larger and set just a little apart. Then finally she stopped, panting. She looked down the street, watching for Soevak, before turning to Pepper. "Sorry, I couldn't... I owe him, I said... I said I would," she told Pepper between heavy breaths, the last statement coming across as a clear apology.

"But I won't let anything happen to you." She was still breathless, but this came across clear, solid, and again there was a fierceness in her eyes. "I promise. Not while I can still prevent it."

Pepper wanted to ask what the hell the woman was doing when she started to wave at Soevak but bit her tongue, because once again they were on the move, and she didn't want to waste any breath that could be used for breathing. In a panic, some part of her considered splitting away from the woman and just running, running away from all this, even though she'd saved her, even though she could be her sister and she trusted her, just because she didn't want to risk getting near that man.

But the thought dissipated as soon as it arrived. Run away...and go where? She didn't know Ketra. She'd been all of twice, and only briefly, because most of the time she just stayed in that trading town with Cain. Worse, even though she was unchained, she was wearing the rags of a slave. People would recognize her as one, and they would return her to the slavers at best.

At worst? A heart-rending scream split the air, and Pepper ran faster.

When they finally reached the "fancy" district (as Pepper knew wealthier places) and the sounds of disorder faded, Pepper began to relax again, though not by much. Once they had stopped, she tugged her hand free of the woman's and crossed her arms over her chest even as the woman got out breathy apologies.

She shook her head vigorously. "I know why ya done it, but please, please don't," she said, her own words breathless and shaky. Her eyes darted around the area, looking both for escape routes and signs of the man. "Let's just...let's just keep goin', he won't know, he won't find us! C'mon, this is fuckin' crazy! Ya don't even hafta feel bad! That man--alright, look, men only buy women for one reason, 'kay? Think about it! Ya don't gotta feel bad fer stiffin' an asshole like that!"

She shifted from foot to foot, anxious to get moving again. "C'mon, c'mon, he's gonna fuckin' find us!"

Elena frowned at Pepper's arguments. Of course she understood where the girl was coming from. No, she couldn't really understand, how could she? It wasn't her life being bought and sold. And she knew Pepper had a point, but she somehow thought it wasn't the case now. And she felt sure she could protect the girl now. Right? What if she failed?

But she owed that man, and she knew it.

" Yes, I know why most men would buy a girl," she countered, and there was a new firmness in her voice. Not the tone one would use with a servant, but rather the tone of a familial argument. "And if it weren't for him, you'd already be sold off to that other man. He'd already have taken you off to who knows where to do whatever he wanted with you. There wouldn't have been anything I could have done. You'd be on your own, with a strange man who carries around bombs, and iron chains around your neck."

She gave Pepper a meaningful, stubborn look.

"I know that I'm glad that didn't happen. I, at least, owe him for that. Of course if you want to go now, I won't stop you and I won't blame you. It's my debt that needs to be settled, and I can do that on my own. If you make it without being caught and ever find your way back to Ketra, I'll help you then, too. Of course. But remember if you stay now, whatever happens next will happen in my home, where you won't wear slave rags, with my husband, and my household. If worse comes to worse, after the insane events today, I think the authorities would support the wife of one of Ketra's wealthiest traders before a stranger who is probably a con man."

Elena waited a moment for everything she said to sink in. When she spoke again, her tone was softer.

"You should still have time before he gets here. If you follow the garden of this brick house up ahead, it leads to a vineyard and then to the forest. You'll make it if you go now."

The assassin wouldn't have had much trouble following them even if Elena hadn't assisted him. As they fled through the streets, Vak kept a fair but constant distance back from them- he could recognize fear when he saw it, and he saw no need to worry her any more than needed. A wry smile crossed his face- this had turned out not too different from one of his jobs. Oh, sure, he'd not been required to kill anybody this time, and the risk of his own death hadn't really come into it, but the amount of thought he was putting into matters was certainly more than he would on day to day business. The same parts of his mind had stirred to life, and if he wasn't careful the same instincts- dangerous instincts- might as well.

When the women stopped, clearly still discussing something (him, in all probability), he did likewise, taking up a visible place across the street and a short ways down. He kept half an eye on them as they spoke, his thoughts turning to other matters. Now, the events at the slave markets had piqued his curiosity- bad for business as he knew that was. Who was it that would do something like that, and for what reasons? Were either of those other strangers part of it? They'd certainly been suspicious enough... Perhaps he'd do a little bit of sniffing about before he left the city. For once he let his expressions lie unmasked- puzzlement and a slight degree of worry wouldn't cause him undue attention here- and scratched his chin. There was nothing to say that these people weren't dangerous, possibly more so than he himself. Was it worth the risk to satisfy a slight professional qualm and sate his curiosity? Definitely not, but if he looked closely enough he might find someone who could make it worth it...

Pepper wanted to argue. She wanted to dig in her heels and be just as stubborn in the opposite direction, but she swallowed her words. Partly out of fear--she didn't want the woman to get angry with her and change her mind or abandon her, because she had saved her, had spent a lot of money to save her, and she didn't have to do that. Was she already regretting the decision? Kia, she must sound so ungrateful!

But it was also partly because the woman was kind of right. Pepper was at a disadvantage. Safety was here, with this woman, and if she left, she may as well turn herself back in to the creeps.

And if she left, well...that was pretty shitty of her, leaving a helpless mother alone with a guy like that. Pepper had a strong feeling this noblewoman had no idea what kind of fire she might be playing with. What if the guy decided to rob her house or something? Or take both of them? Or hurt the baby? Or something? At least it would be two against one, and Pepper might be able to do something. She was a mage. And exhausted, weak, and tired mage, early into her training and reliant upon spells and words of power, but she was also no longer in irons.

Her shoulders slouched in defeat and she let out a sigh.

"Sorry," she said quietly, looking away. "I'm just...I'm just kinda nervous here."

And those nerves spiked when she caught sight of a shape in the distance. A familiar shape.

She stiffened and moved closer to the woman. "We've got company."

Elena pulled Pepper into a hug and kissed her on the cheek. "I know," she told her.  "I'm sorry I couldn't do better." Elena already felt badly for coming down hard on the girl. Of course she was scared. Elena was scared. But they wouldn't be any safer if Soevak went to the authorities and said that Elena had stolen his property. Which would have been the case, for now. There were plenty of witnesses.

She let go at Pepper's last words and took a short moment to compose herself before turning to Soevak. "You don't have to pretend to be recovering from the run, just because we are," she said by way of calling him over. "Let's get out of the street, finally. I think it's been exciting enough out here for me for the day. Just try it: spend three months never sleeping for more than two hours, and see how your nerves hold up."

Deciding that was argument enough, she took Pepper's hand and, walking in between the two, led them down the road or merchant and banker and other wealthy people's houses. It wasn't long before they reached hers. A fine, grey stoned town home. The "city house" of Mallor's family. Tough Elena had also come from money, before her marriage she never had multiple houses. Entering the house, they were greeted by a strict-looking white haired woman who frowned at the lot of them.

"Misses Katz," Elena greeted the woman, "could you take our guest upstairs? Draw her a bath and put her in a new dress. Mister Strel and I will be waiting for her in the library." She didn't offer any explanation to the housekeeper, who disapproved of Elena on the best of days, nor did she ask permission of Soevak.

Once Misses Katz took Pepper away, Elena led Soevak threw to a high-ceilinged, book-laden, comfortable library. Wordlessly, she gestured for him to take a seat and went to a cabinet to pour him a drink. She unwrapped the sling that had swaddled the babe to her and sat opposite to Soevak. Undoing her shirt, she put the child to her breast. When he began feeding, she finally turned to Soevak.

"While we're alone," Elena began, tired but all business, "I want to agree to some preliminary terms. I'll pay you in full for the rest of her price, and compensate you for anything else you might have lost in that melee. The whatever debt you feel is left to your draw it from me. Anything but the child. Leave the girl out of it."

Soevak made no protest as they were led through the streets. Good, they appeared to be calm enough to reason with. That would make things much easier on him. He focused his efforts on taking in as much as he could about the neighborhood and the house they were approaching as they walked. Neither the wealth- which didn't surprise him in the least, given the circumstances- nor the expression on the face of the older woman escaped his notice. Nor did he object to the girl being allowed a short time of reprieve- the more time she had to calm herself, the less likely it was she'd fight him about it.

When they reached the library, Vak shook his head at the offered drink and chose to remain standing; the former was a matter of principal in his profession, the latter a force of habit. "You need not fear my intents on the girl, miss. I don't require compensation, and- as I'm from Connlaoth- it would be rather inconvenient to obtain a slave this far from home. I seek only a favor- from either you or the girl, whichever of you can aid me- no questions, and silence about the matter afterwards."

Grabbing the side of his shirt, he continued. "Can you do that?"

OOC: I figure since Rhi is gone and Pepper is up having a bath anyway, there's no harm in going a few threads further on our own. Sorry for how short this is, though!

BIC:  Elena watched the man carefully. It seemed suspicious to her that after throwing down so much money he wouldn't be interested in being compensated or in having the slave. As far as she was concerned, she had no reason not to fear his intents with the girl. And who would buy a mage if they were from Connlaoth? If anything, Elena was more concerned about this man than she had been before.

But you would have lost the girl without him, she reminded herself. She owed him for that and she knew it. She owed him exactly what he was looking for... a favor.

"Yes," she answered, her voice a little guarded, suspicious, "of course I can do that." She waited to hear what this favor worth - worth the life of a girl and more gold than she had cared to count - would be.

At that, Vak took hold of his shirt and pulled it up to expose the wound on his right side. The jagged gash about halfway up his torso would have looked unpleasant enough on its own, but the skin around it was blackened and sickly. "It's no poison, nor infection, and it's been months since I received it. The blade that did this has to have been magical somehow... which means I need magic to mend it." Dropping his shirt back down and folding his arms, Vak fixed Elena with a steely gaze. "If you or the girl can do anything about it, or point me to someone who could, I'll leave and you'll never have to see me again."

Grimacing in pain, the man finally sat down. "Now, why ask the both of you instead of a professional healer? Because I need leverage. In my profession it's best to avoid showing weakness, so I needed someone with plenty of reasons never to speak of this. The girl's freedom would have been sufficient for her, as I think the safe resolution of her situation is for you... And, to be perfectly honest- as you could likely figure out from the amount of coin I was willing to pay for her- I'm growing desperate. If I don't cure this, it'll likely be the death of me- either directly or indirectly." While it went against the whole 'avoid showing weakness' philosophy he went by, Vak figured the truth- or at least the half-truth- of the matter might appeal to the woman's instincts.

Elena's suspicions didn't exactly melt away when she saw Soevak's wound, but they were, maybe, pushed aside. At least temporarily. Concern for the man quickly replaced them, and she frowned at the gash in his side. It was... bad. And very likely beyond her abilities. And the girl? (She really needed to learn the girl's name...) Elena didn't even know if she had any knowledge of healing at all. Who knows what kind of mage she might be studying to be.

"I was going to ask that," Elena admitted carefully, her eyes still on Soevak's side where the wound had just been exposed. "In your profession as... a business man?" She couldn't help it. While his profession might matter to her when inviting guests to a dinner party, it didn't particularly matter when he needed help. "Though you don't have to hold a girl's freedom hostage," she said and, realizing that she'd been staring at his side, looked again to his eyes. "I can help you and keep the affair to myself without the added 'incentive.'"

Though would she feel indebted to him (and therefore that much more determined to help him), if it hadn't been for his role in getting Pepper out of the slave market? Maybe. But maybe not.

Elena let out a little sigh, uncertainty growing in her, and got up to carry the babe over to a small bassinet in the corner of the library. Pulling her shirt back on properly, she stood over child for a few moments. Inwardly, she was wondering how she'd acquired so many new little chicks to take under wing today. Mallor was always telling her that she committed herself too deeply and too often to other people's pains. And that was on a normal day, not a day when she'd brought a penniless slave girl and a... well, whatever the man was, into their home. When Avi began to fall asleep, she turned back to Soevak, but instead of sitting down, she walked over to his chair and knelt beside him on the ball of her feet.

"I don't want to make you stand up again. That looked painful enough," she explained, concern clear on her face. She reached to lift his shirt herself, but stopped, glancing up at him. "Can I see it again?"

"It doesn't hurt to be sure," Vak replied to her comment about not needing leverage. "And the less you know about my profession, the better for both of us. But yes, technically you could say I'm a merchant of sorts."  It was a rather loose interpretation of the word merchant, but that was about all the assassin was willing to say about the matter. Inwardly he berated himself for saying as much as he had- he normally wasn't this clumsy with his tongue. Perhaps the injury was addling his mind as well as his body? Or perhaps it was just the desperation... He'd have to keep himself in check.

The man just waited patiently as she took care of the child, and when she asked to see the wound he gave a short nod. Adjusting his cuffs to make sure that the knives in his sleeves would stay secure- though that wouldn't exactly be apparent to Elena- he began unbuttoning his shirt. "Might be easier if I don't have to hold it up the whole time." Pulling the garment away and folding it up, the man set it aside. It might have been a trick of the light, but the wound almost appeared worse than it had before.

Why not just keep up the rouse of being a businessman? Elena wondered, if he was going to be so cryptic about it. But she figured he was probably right, she probably didn't want to know more about it. The less she knew, the less she would feel obligated to tell the household, the happier everyone would be, she figured. "Alright, Mister Strel," she agreed calmly.

Elena waited patiently as he removed and folded his shirt. Inwardly she grimaced at the sight of it again, but managed to keep her outward expression to just another worried frown. Carefully, she touched her hand, just lightly, to the wound to test for heat or stiffness in the flesh.

At this moment, Misses Katz returned, coming through the door on the opposite side of Soevak as Elena. The older woman made no attempt to hide her surprise or disapproval of finding her mistress alone with her hand on the bare skin of a shirtless stranger.

"Ma'am," she started with a 'polite' cough. "I just received word that your husband," she put a pointed emphasis on these words, "has to be travel for the next few days to meet with a potential client. He asked that word be passed on to you."

"Oh..." Elena responded awkwardly, a visible blush coloring her cheeks. "Thank you, Misses Katz."

The woman gave a curt nod and turned sharply to leave the room. The blush stayed on Elena but, embarrassment at the perceived situation aside, this wasn't the best of news. She'd liked the idea of having this strange man around a lot more when she thought that Mallor would also be here. Especially because the whole situation would seem much more 'appropriate' to a household who already found her lacking.

"She doesn't really like me very much," she sighed. Elena had none of Soevak's reserve. Still, she'd said it without thinking and, remembering what the actual situation at hand was, seemed a bit flustered and embarrassed for a moment before collecting herself again. "Um, I... You're right, of course, I don't need to know much about you. But I would like to hear something about how you go it."

Vak almost chuckled at the intrusion- he knew full well what it must look like. He remained silent until the woman left, and then gave Elena an apologetic smile. "I noticed. Terribly sorry if I've caused any additional household trouble. As for the wound..." The assassin rubbed his forehead and shrugged. "I suppose it can't hurt. Funnily enough, I got it one of the few times I decided to do a civil service. There was a maniac running loose, and a very dangerous one at that. I tracked him down and tried to assist in stopping him- you see the result." Soevak almost grimaced at the memory; it definitely wasn't one of his prouder moments.

"Serves me right for doing something for free, I suppose. Though things could have ended up a lot worse for me..." At that the assassin closed his eyes and steadied his breathing, deciding it was best to let the woman work- though he kept an ear open for any more questions she might have had. A chance to clear his head would do him good, as well.

The flesh around his wound would have felt cold and stiff to the touch. The wound itself, however, was a good deal hotter than Vak's body temperature. At least there didn't appear to be any puss in the wound, and it seemed relatively clean. Vak kept a calm face as she touched it, though his body did stiffen slightly.

"No, it's fine," Elena answered, her focus still on Soevak's wound. "If it weren't this it'd be something else." This was true enough. The list of reasons that Misses Katz (and much of the rest of the household, for that matter) seemed to always be changing and growing. Elena had stopped paying attention to it awhile ago. But still, she didn't like tension in the house, and tried to work her best to keep the peace. She'd just have to make up for this one later.

'One of the few times I decided to do a civil service.' That was an interesting line. Not that it surprised her at this point, but it was a clear hint that what he usually did was not a civil service. Though she'd agreed to learn as little about the man as possible, Elena was becoming rather curious.

"Actually," she frowned at the stiff cold skin, moving her hand to compare it to the heat of the wound, "I was wondering more what kind of weapon it was, what kind of man it was who did it, and how long it's been like this." She felt his body stiffen and pulled her hand away for now. "Sorry." She let out a small sigh, wondering what she was going to do for this man. "Also, what you've tried already to ease the wound?"

Pepper took her sweet time in the bath. After days of traveling, and then that morning's ordeal, the hot water felt divine, and the time alone gave her a chance to try to decompress and pull herself together, which was easier said than done. She couldn't stop replaying the day's events in her head: the terror of capture, the humiliation of being forced to strip from her robes to rags in front of those men, and the raw hurt of knowing that this, all of this, was orchestrated by someone she'd actually believed and trusted and that she'd fallen for it all, and he'd sold her off like she was nothing.

And then there were the screams. The screams of those murdered slaves wouldn't leave her ears.

She was safe now, but she didn't feel it, and for a long while she just hid in the bath and let herself have a good cry. It felt stupid throwing a pity party for herself when people had died, and childish that all she wanted right then was to go home, but when she'd finally worn herself out and the water was lukewarm, she pulled herself together and scrubbed herself clean. Alright. That was enough. She couldn't stay up here forever.

With a sigh, she finally drew herself out, dried herself off, and slipped into the clean dress Misses Katz provided. It was simple, but far richer than anything she'd ever worn and it covered everything she wanted covered.

Pepper didn't really bother with her hair, except to run her fingers through it in some attempt at straightening it. Wet, the curls straightened out and fell to her shoulders, but once it was dry it would be a hot mess. Oh well. It would do. With a deep breath and a roll of her shoulders, she left the room to head downstairs to the library, directed there by Misses Katz (who obviously didn't care much for her or the situation).

She heard voices as she approached, the mother and the man in the middle of some discussion, and she awkwardly poked her head inside.

"Hello--oh."

She froze and her face heated. She had no idea what was going on, only that the woman was crouched down beside the man, and he was shirtless.

"The fight was three months ago now, and the wound has been like this ever since it stopped bleeding. It was a short sword, wielded by a man who was some sort of fallen holy warrior, cursed and twisted into a sick mockery. I don't claim to understand his motives, nor exactly what he was, but he was certainly dangerous. As for treatment- I've tried most mundane methods. Stitches won't hold properly, salves don't do any good, nor will heat or any sort of medicine I know of." The assassin glanced at Pepper as she poked her head in, and he simply gave her a polite nod before continuing.

"I can only really tell you one more thing about it. Ever since I received this injury, I've been plagued by foul dreams the likes of which I've never imagined before... which isn't exactly typical of me. When such a dream wakes me, it almost feels as if the wound is burning." Soevak shuddered. In all his years of grim work, he'd not seen anything nearly as bad as his nightmares now. It was a rare night that he slept soundly. He knew of ways he could keep himself under, but he couldn't do that for fear of leaving himself vulnerable... and a reluctance to trap himself within the realm of his dreams.

With a grunt, he tried to rid himself of such thoughts and looked back to Pepper- who seemed to have had the same first impression as the earlier woman. "And you, miss, can consider yourself freed as far as I'm concerned." The man figured he might as well try to allay any further concerns  the girl might have had about it now rather than later.

"Three months..." Elena repeated, muttering to herself. She couldn't, or didn't try, to hide the worry on her face. This was a bad wound for so long a time and it was plain that his assumption was right: it was no ordinary wound. A cursed sword. A fallen holy warrior. Elena felt as though she might be getting seriously out of her depth. She specialized in ordinary, or at least non-magical, maladies... mostly those that affected the poor. Sickness and disease, the injuries - some minor, some gruesome - that were sometimes caused by machinery or farming, or acquired in a fight or a battle. But by mundane weapons and mundane men.

And, beyond that, she'd been practicing as barely more than a herbalist since she'd gotten pregnant. Her healing art drew directly from her own energy, and Mallor had insisted. But she owed this man now and, more than that, listening to his story, she wanted to help him. Whoever he was didn't matter that much, really.

She was snapped out of her reverie. She looked up at Pepper (this time without blushing) and smiled to see the girl looking so much better, or at least so much more decent. She waved for Pepper to come over to the opposite side of Soevak. Maybe the girl - she really needed to learn her name! - would know something Elena didn't. Or maybe someone at the Sanctuary...

"I don't think we ever learned what kind of mage you are," she said to Pepper, standing up, "but..." she gestured with her eyes to Soevak's wound and recounted for Pepper what the man had already told her about the wound and how and by whom it had been inflicted. She gave a little sigh before admitting, addressing mostly Soevak again, "I'm afraid this is a little out of my normal area of practice. I don't normally deal with curses or... But I will see what I can do," she frowned, thinking again of his tormented sleep.

"Maybe you know something more?" she asked Pepper. Then, as if seeing the girl again for the first time, she squeezed Pepper's shoulder and smiled at her. What a relief, at least, to have her safe for now. "You look much better," she added quietly, warmly, to Pepper.

The smoke had cleared, finally.

A small group of men stood on the stage, discussing something feverishly while guards worked to clear the lot of any who remained, seeing to the injured. Word in the area was that healers were to arrive soon; many were dubious, however, as it was just hearsay.

As non-magical medics tended to those hurt some of the slavers worked to organize the bodies; most were slaves but they needed to be certain that they were not taking any free men to the pyre. Dust ground against the fresh corpses as they were dragged away and the few slaves who were caught alive trembled in their confines.

"This is preposterous! Your organization is disgraceful!" The lord spouted.

He had been rambling angrily to one of the businessmen since things began to calm down. The victim of his raving simply stared with a furrowed brow. "There was nothing we could do, milord. We run these auctions daily and nothing like this has ever happened before."

"You are selling wretches, slaver. Not furniture! Your employees should have been ready for anything going wrong! Half of your stock was not even broken yet, and you expect that none of them would try to escape?"

"It was not the work of slaves that caused th--"

"--Similarly, they should be equipped for meddlers! I invested in your cause, that means I have a say in what goes on here! Were it not for me, this joke would not even be properly funded. You would be bankrupt."

"--Yes, I understand, milord, bu--" The lord stepped forward and grabbed the slaver's jacket, pulling him close while glaring bloody daggers at the fellow.

"I am going to give you one last chance. You are to listen closely. Do. You. Understand?"

"...Yes, milord."

"I want you to carve the heads off of each dead slave here. Once your auction is set up again, I expect to see those heads put to use. I want them stuck upon pikes about this stage as a warning to anyone who would think of running or meddling."

The slaver swallowed, clearly not liking this idea but nodding nonetheless.

"Good... Now, clean this up! I am returning home, you will salvage my investment or I will see to it that your head becomes a decoration as well. I will be leaving my... personal assistant, to oversee your operation."

"Of course, milord. Safe travels..." As the angry man left the others turned to look at his assistant. The individual in question, some form of beast-man, just smiled at them and hefted a large axe onto his back. To this, most dispersed to help with the operation while the lad just chewed out simply sighed.

[Blaaargh sorry for the long delay. I think things are under control now. =__=]

---

The way they casually responded to her intrusion proved that she wasn't really intruding on anything at all, and certainly not something so awkward as it had initially looked. Pepper relaxed a little, though the blush remained on her cheeks--more a shamed blush than an embarrassed one now, for jumping to such...racy conclusions. At the woman's wave and reassuring smile, she edged into the room and stood, arms crossed, opposite the man, who she fixed with a scowl as he spoke. She still didn't trust him. There had to be some catch or...or something! Either way, she'd missed a lot here, considering she didn't have the slightest clue what they were talking about, about dreams and such.

Her scowl only wavered when the man addressed her directly, officially granting her freedom.

Her shoulders slackened and she blinked in surprise, disarmed. "Huh? Oh. Uh...er, thanks? Not that I should hafta thank ya for giving me something that was stolen from me..." she added in a mumble, disturbed that she even had to thank someone for something like that. How backwards was that, when she'd been kidnapped? Jeez.

But then she realized that sounded really sullen and ungrateful, all things considered, and she felt kind of bad about that as soon as she'd said it. Neither of them had to do any of this. And maybe that's what bugged her, because it left her feeling vulnerable and indebted and dependent and she was really just exhausted and done with this day, and done with men in general. Still, she listened as the mother recounted what they'd discussed in her absence, and she eyed the man's wound more closely this time.

So that's what this was all about, huh? Desperate times, desperate measures and all that.

She leaned into the woman's grip and smiled tiredly. "Heh, thanks. I sure feel it. Y'know, feel human and stuff again. Um...sorry for bein' all moody and shit--er, stuff. It's just...long day, ya know?" She wiped some damp hair from her eyes and looked back and forth between them, addressing them both. She still wasn't sure what she felt about the man, but she directed her apology at him, anyway.

Rubbing her arm, she glanced at the floor. "So, about yer issue, with the scar and all. Um...well, ya see, I don't think my power's much help to ya, anyway. I mean, I'm still learnin' and all, but I'm an earth mage. Deal with dirt and whatnot, minerals, rocks...I know a lot about rocks! I couldn't tell ya much about healin' a wound. But..."

She looked back up and shrugged. "I mean, and I ain't just sayin' this 'cause I wanna go home. I do, of course I do, but for honest, the mage academy might be yer best bet." And even as she said it, sourness rose in her throat and she swallowed hard, looking away.

Another cursed man, and her trying to be all helpful and suggest the mage academy like it could fix everything.

((OOC: Okay, since Highway is MIA, skipping ahead a day and assuming that Soevak took off. Based on talking to Highway about it while he was still around that's probably what Soevak would have done anyway.))


Elena balanced a tray in arm and knocked gently on the bedroom door with the other. On the tray was a pot of tea, two cups, a hot bowl of porridge, and a small arrangement of fresh fruit. Misses Katz had made some fuss about Elena taking it up herself, especially with Avi wrapped up on her back, but Elena had been insistent. She wanted to take breakfast to the girl herself. She'd been through enough, and Elena still wanted to learn her story.

The previous day's events had been exhausting for Elena, too. As a young mother of a young infant, she was accustomed to not sleeping half as much as she'd like to, but she wasn't sure if she'd slept at all the previous night. Images of the slaughter in the market kept coming uninvited into her mind. Her failed attempt to heal Soevak had also taken its toll on her and, though she'd tried her best to insist that the man stay and rest at least one night, and better yet let her take him to the Sanctuary, he'd seemed set to leave the house - and maybe Ketra - as soon as possible. So there was no more Elena could do about that. Not for now. But the darkness she'd encountered in the wound had unsettled her, and even thinking on it now she felt a chill.

But there was no more she could do for him, and hopefully still much more she could do for the scared mage girl from the slave market.

Elena didn't wait for Pepper to answer, but quietly opened the door after knocking and slipped inside. She hadn't properly dressed for the day; Elena was barefoot and in her dressing gown with her long, wavy brown hair still down. It was how one might come to the room of one's actual sister. "Pepper?" she called quietly and closed the door behind her with her foot. "I brought some tea and hot breakfast, if you're up for it."

Pepper didn't think she would sleep well after what she'd been through, but in the end, physical fatigue won out against emotional trauma. She passed out as soon as her head hit the pillow, and her sleep was deep and dreamless. Blessedly so. She had been worried she'd have nightmares, but that night they left her in peace.

And beside that, this has to be the most comfortable, luxurious bed she had ever slept in in her entire life! No, she had no trouble sleeping that night. Gods, she didn't even know sheets could smell like that! Or that there was such a thing as a not-lumpy mattress!

She had just started to rouse from sleep, awakened by morning light peeking through the windows right at eye level (of course!) but nowhere near ready to move from the warmth and comfort of her blanket nest, when a knock came at the door. Jolting fully awake, Pepper sat up in bed, rubbing at her eyes, as Elena came into the room.

"Oh. G'mornin'," Pepper greeted with a tired smile followed by a loud, long yawn. She stretched and arched her back, then let out a happy sigh. "Boy. Dunno how ya get anythin' done with a bed like this. I'd just lay 'round all lazy all day."

She ran her fingers through her hair, which was a fluffy bird's nest, and eyed the tray Elena brought with her. Something sure smelled good, and her stomach rumbled as she took in the sight of hot tea, fresh fruit, and fresh porridge. "Though I guess that's a good reason to get outta bed, huh?" she said, nodding to the tray. "That looks amazin'."

Throwing back the blankets, she scooted to the edge of the bed, then paused.

"Oh. Should I get up? Am I allowed to eat it here?"

At the academy, breakfast in bed was definitely off limits.

"Well, you can lay around all day today if you like," Elena answered with a smile as she set down the tray of tea and porridge. Once that was down, she unwrapped the sleeping infant from her back and set him carefully down on the bed, which was large enough to sit all three of them with room to spare. "You don't mind, do you?" she asked, and her large, maroon eyes lingered on Pepper for a few moments longer as she did. Good, at least the girl appeared to be in much better shape than she had been yesterday. The poor thing. Elena couldn't quite say the same about herself, but that was secondary now. Her primary task was looking after Pepper. And, after that, finding out who the girl was, and why she had been drawn to her so. Elena's heart gave a momentary pang, thinking of all the girls in that market who she hadn't helped. All dead or sold into slavery now.

"And there's no need to get out of bed, unless you want to." Elena poured two cups of tea, then set one aside so the tray now only contained the porridge, fruit, and one cup of tea for Pepper. "Here you go. Scoot back onto the bed there," she said, urging Pepper to proper herself up instead against the headboard. She may as well enjoy being in bed. Then she set the tray down in Pepper's lap. Elena got the second cup of tea on it saucer and, maneuvering carefully, joined Pepper on the bed, tucking her knees to the side. All else aside, this was nice. This is what Elena imagined it'd have been like growing up with sisters her own age, instead of her sisters, who were much older and (from Elena's perspective) much more serious than her. If only Pepper really were her long-lost sister. Except come home, not gone away, like her long-lost brother. But Elena felt fairly certain that was not the case.

"I think it's probably best that you stay indoors today, anyway," Elena added to her prior comments, a touch more seriously now. "I think it's safer, I mean. I don't know what the fallout will be from what... what happened yesterday. So it's probably best that you stay here and rest. I think you've earned it, anyway." She smiled a bit at that, trying to make up for the serious tone of a moment before. "You can stay here as long as you like, of course. And when you're ready, we'll help get you back - safely - to your college in Serendipity. Mallor, my husband, makes business trips to Arca from time to time. And one of my sisters is married in Serendipity. So it shouldn't be hard to arrange. But not before you're ready, of course! And if you want to stay on longer here, obviously you're welcome to - as long as you like."

Elena smiled hopefully at the girl. Not necessarily hopeful that she'd stay (though she had to admit something about the idea seemed nice), but hopeful that she would feel better, feel safe and secure, that she felt she was somewhere she could trust.

Elena shifted her weight, concern clear on her face, however bright of an exterior she tried to keep, and set her tea to balance precariously on the bed in front of her. Then she picked up Avi and placed him in the crook of her legs. The infant stirred momentarily, then settled back asleep. Elena watched him, her features softened, for a moment before returning her attention to Pepper and picking her tea carefully back up. She had so much she wanted to ask the girl, so much she wanted to know. But the only decent thing would be to at least let her eat her breakfast first. So instead she said, with a defeated smile, "He sleeps like an angel now, but you forget about it in the middle of the night when you want to sleep."

Breakfast in bed? Really? Doing as Elena instructed, Pepper scooted on the bed until her back was to the headboard. When the tray was set on her lap, it took all of her willpower not to dive right into her meal. It smelled so good, and this...this felt different. Like what she imagined a real home would feel like. Was this what having a family was?

She took a bite of porridge as Elena spoke, nodding in agreement. She had no desire to go back out there, at least not for a while. This was safety, security. And she didn't want to see what the streets would look like, or be reminded of what had happened, of how lucky she was.

Pepper jerked her thoughts away from that subject before they could grow too dark and shoveled another spoonful into her mouth.

"Oh, I'd love to stay," she said at last, putting her spoon down and looking at Elena. And it was the truth, she realized with a pang. "I mean, ya been awful nice to me, and...um...heh." Scratching the back of her neck, she glanced down at the bed, at the sleeping infant. "This is kinda dumb but, not gonna lie, ya had me there a moment. There was a moment I thought, maybe...maybe ya was my sister. 'Cause that'd be nice, havin' a sister, especially one sweet as you. Havin' a family and all. But uh..."

Pepper let out a sigh. "But I can't. 'Cause Cain...that's one of my mentors. Gosh, poor old guy, he's probably worried sick by now," Pepper said with a wince. "Or glad I'm outta his beard. But it's been...I don't even know how long now. Three days? More or less."

Shaking her head, she looked back up at Elena and put on a smile. "But this is real nice and, I mean...I really appreciate everything yer doin' fer me."

Elena frowned, unconsciously scooting a bit closer to Pepper. She hadn't imagined, of course, that Pepper would stay forever. (Though, truth be told, she'd hardly had the chance to think about what would happen in the long-run before now). Elena couldn't help but feel a little disappointed at hearing Pepper ready to go so soon. And, of course, concern for the girl welled up inside of her. Elena felt protective of her now, and she'd only just gotten her to safety. Sending her back out there... well, look at how it had worked out for her so far! It sent a chill of disquiet into Elena's stomach.

"Of course," she agreed slowly, "you must get word to your mentor. But we can send word ahead of you. I mean, we could send a messenger today. Then he won't have to worry for longer than he needs to. And I'll worry if you leave too soon. I think those... men, I think they'll be on the lookout for anyone who... escaped." Elena made a face; she felt awkward talking, even obliquely, about what happened in the market square. "You didn't escape, technically, of course, I suppose, but I don't think we can be too cautious." Elena gave Pepper a little, pleading smile, her large eyes looking a bit pleadingly at the girl (if self-consciously so). "And when you go," she asked, "you won't go alone, will you? Please let one of us go with you. Or at least send someone."

Elena looked at Pepper for a moment longer, then, with something clearly on her mind. "And before you do go..." she started, but then stopped. Elena straightened herself up, pushing her long, wavy hair over her shoulder. "I'm sorry I made up that story about you being my sister," she said apologetically, restarting. But for all that, she was looking very earnestly, and very meaningfully at Pepper now. Part of Elena, too, wished the story had been true. "But, maybe this will sound crazy, and I did make that up, I was desperate, but something connects us, Pepper. I don't know what. But I... Sometimes, I can feel things, premonitions, you could say. But only with people I'm close to. Avi," she said, nodding to the baby, "my brother, my husband. There aren't many people I can connect to from a distance. Especially not strangers." She pushed her hair back again, giving a self-conscious little laugh and looking to the side. "I know it sounds strange. But yesterday, somehow I knew that I needed to go to the slave market - where I've never been before! And then, watching all those girls who all needed help, I knew I needed to help you." She looked back at Pepper now, clear eyed. "Nothing like that has ever happened before."

Pepper had been about to answer Elena, about to say that yes! She would love to take someone with her! She really didn't want to go alone, for all the reasons Elena had mentioned; after her run-in with Soren, she was kind of terrified of that happening again, or of a slaver recognizing her, and it would be a long, lonely trip back to Arca, and she'd never traveled alone before. In fact, she'd really love it if Elena could come with her, even though she knew it might not be realistic, because she did have a baby and traveling with a baby couldn't be easy. It might not even be safe. But she held out the ridiculous hope that it might be possible, because she wanted to get to know Elena more, and really didn't want to leave this comfortable, family-like setting so soon.

She'd known her barely a day, but she still wished she didn't have to go.

But before she could say any of that, Elena changed subjects, and what she said surprised her.

Premonitions?

That was really uncanny.

"Really?" Pepper asked, sitting straighter and leaning forward with interest. "What about like, folks yer gonna be close to? It work that way, too, maybe? Or only with folks yer already close to? 'Cause that's real weird..." She scratched the side of her curly-haired head and then took another bite of the now-cooling porridge.

"Weren't no one around that'd be important to ya, I don't reckon. I didn't meet any other folks or nothin'. Just slaves, slavers, and Soren, and the last two were one in the same," Pepper said bitterly, stabbing at her porridge, before realizing Elena wouldn't know what she was talking about. She frowned. "Oh, that's the bastard sold me out. Tried to be nice and help 'im, and look what it got me." She stabbed her porridge again and laughed without humor. "Shoulda known it was all a joke. He was too pretty for me."

"Just slaves, slavers, and Soren, and the last two were one in the same."

Elena felt her stomach drop like a sack of lead. Slavers. Soren. A slaver. Soren was...

She must not have heard her correctly. She must be mistaken somehow. But Elena knew she hadn't misheard. She knew somehow that Pepper hadn't confused the situation. Soren's role hadn't been misunderstood. Soren. Her Soren. Her brother.

Elena stared at Pepper, the color drained from her face, as these confused thoughts swam through her mind. But as the reality of it, the truth of it, settled into fitting pieces of a jigsaw in her mind, her expression changed to one of almost physical pain. She had suspected that Pepper might be connected to Soren how, but she never imagined... She knew that Soren no longer lived an unambiguously moral life, but a slaver. A slaver.

Elena took a deep, ragged breath, covering her face in her hands as she collected herself. She took another deep breath, then looked at Pepper, her expression now one of great sadness. Elena always had worn her heart on her sleeve.

"Pepper," she said, interrupting the girl's aggressive attack on her oatmeal. She wouldn't lie to her or... mislead her. Why? Clearly Soren wasn't the one she needed to protect now. But she was a little afraid that what she was about to say might drive Pepper out of the home. And her face showed the mixture of worry, sadness, and frustration as clear as if they were written on her. "I have a brother Soren."

"What?" Pepper's head whipped up, and she stared at Elena with wide green eyes, expression changing to something between panic and pain. Her face paled and she dropped the spoon into her bowl.

Calm down. Might not even be the same guy. Lotsa folk can be named Soren...

Yet what Elena had said about her premonitions? That made Pepper think that wasn't the case, and the stricken look on Elena's face only confirmed it.

"Black hair?" she asked, meeting Elena's eyes. "Brown eyes? Turns into a wolf?"

Elena didn't know what to say. She just watched Pepper with big, pained eyes. She felt sick, and even... dirty thinking that she it was her brother, her Soren, her blood who had done this to the girl

And how many others?

But the idea sent Elena's head spinning. And now she had to take care of this one. Elena wanted to look away from Pepper in shame, but she forced herself to keep the girl's gaze, but her face was tight with emotion.

"Yes," she said, nodding slowly. Elena looked like she might burst into tears, but she kept her voice  controlled, definitive, speaking slowly. She wouldn't pretend. "Yes. My brother Soren is cursed, and takes the form of a wolf. I haven't seen him in a long time. He left us... five years ago. He stopped being the brother I loved before then, but I..."

Then Elena finally broke Pepper's gaze, squeezing her eyes shut. She couldn't believe it. But she could. She knew it was true. And knowing it made her physically sick. Suddenly, she felt that she could kill him. She couldn't believe that she had to protect this girl, to save her, because of Soren. But that's what she needed to focus on, and she looked back up at Pepper, her eyes pleading.

"Pepper, please don't go. I-... I know this might change how you feel, about me, but... Please. Stay until it's safe for you to leave here, at least. And then please leave with Mallor. He'll take you. I-" Elena swallowed, her urgent plea stopping mid-sentence. What could she say?

"Huh? No! Oh, no, Elena!" Pepper said, and reached out, taking the woman's hands in hers. She met her eyes and held them.

"It ain't changed nothin' 'bout how I feel toward ya. Ya saved me. If it weren't fer ya, I woulda been..." She trailed off, not wanting to speak it. She knew the sorts of horrors that befell girls sold into slavery. What street urchin hadn't heard the stories? What street urchin didn't have a friend that vanished one day, never to be seen again? Those were the sorts of cautionary tales passed around her little gang of misfits, the sorts of stories she grew up having nightmares about, and she'd just about lived it. She shuddered and tightened her hands on Elena's.

"Ya ain't yer brother. Yer...yer wonderful. Ya been nothin' but sweet to me, and didn't have to, and..."

Elena was starting to blur, and she realized that her eyes were filling with tears. The betrayal hurt. Goddammit, it still hurt. And then to be here, with his sister of all people...

Kia, what a small world.

She reached up and wiped at her eyes, dropping her gaze. "I was real stupid," she said, sniffing.

"Pepper, I..." she looked up and met the girl's gaze, then smiled. A very genuine smile, and squeezed Pepper's hands. "Thank you."

But she was wrong. She had had to save her. Elena hadn't felt for a moment that it had really been a choice. Not that she didn't want to! She would have wanted to save every one of those girls, every one, but... But no, this one she had to. And now she knew why. Elena scooted on the bed so that she was sitting beside Pepper, and leaned back, tilting her head back until it bumped against the hard wood of the headboard.

"Oh, Soren," she muttered, probably to herself. "I always hoped that he'd one day come home. But not like this. Not if..."

Elena leaned forward now so that she could look at Pepper. Even if she knew what had drawn her to the girl, what had made her responsible for getting her out of the slave market, Elena still felt an inexplicable closeness to her. "Pepper," she said earnestly, "you must let me help you. Whenever you need anything. If there's ever anything I can do... Please let me. You're so sweet," she said, and meant it. After all, she didn't think many would be so open with her now after learning who she was, or who she was in relation to the girl's captor. "I wish you were my sister."

Elena bit her lip then, clearly Not Asking something. The truth was, she wanted to know what had happened. She didn't, but she did. But she couldn't dare ask her to relive that. What good would it do?

Pepper was no longer eating, for talking about this made her lose her appetite--even if it was also cathartic. But though the subject was dark, it was peppered by Elena's sincerity, her genuineness, and that took away a lot of the edge. Pepper turned her head to look at Elena and managed a real smile that touched her eyes, and she reached out to cover Elena's hand with her own.

"We can still be sisters in a sense, ya know," she said. "Blood be damned." For the kids she'd run with on the street had not been related to her, but that had made them no less family. Her own blood had abandoned her when she was too young to remember their faces.

Pepper fell silent then. Just as Elena was Not Asking (and it was obvious she had things she wanted to say; the bitten lip and sudden silence was a clear tell), Pepper was...well, she was Holding Back. And not because she wanted to. She had never been the sort of person to bottle things up; she had always been blunt, and that went for her feelings, too. Growing up, she and the other kids had always talked about everything, because it was a way to cope, and there was no sense hiding your fears when they were the same ones every other kid had. It always made her feel less alone--and less frightened.

But things were different at the university; it was an entirely different social dynamic, one she didn't always fit in with. And here, she wasn't sure, either. Estranged or not, she wasn't sure if Elena would want to know what her brother had done.

She looked at Elena, and then back down at her knees. "If ya wanna ask me anything, ya can."

Elena smiled at Pepper's offer that they could still be sisters, in a sense. She thought of her own sisters, who she loved, of course, but... Well, they were very different than Pepper. Very different than Elena, for that matter. "You're probably no more younger than me than I am with my own sisters," she said with a smile, squeezing Pepper's hand. "Deal."

But Elena's smile, as genuine as it had been, didn't last, and her gaze drifted to the distance. She wasn't thinking of the sister she'd just gained, but of the brother who she was now sure she'd lost. Perhaps it had always been a dream, thinking that she hadn't lost Soren the same day as Kirnan. Two brothers, gone. And Soren... Soren had been more than just a brother to her. They'd been best friends. But now...

Elena looked back up at Pepper, frowning. "I... I honestly don't even know what I would want to ask. Or what I want to know." Her voice sounded more tired than anything, but maybe a little resigned. She wanted to know everything, and at the same time she didn't want to know any of it. And what more did she need to know than she already did? What good would it do her? "What more can I need to know?"

"I dunno," Pepper said, and shrugged awkwardly, her cheeks coloring a little. Maybe she shouldn't have pressed. People told her she could be too blunt! "Just...throwin' it out there. I know it's, uh, gotta be awkward. That it's yer brother and all. Um..."

She shifted a little where sat and spooned more porridge into her mouth. She let it sit in her mouth for a moment, not really tasting it, as her own head flooded with questions she wasn't sure she should ask, but that she was curious about. Would it be too forward? Too insensitive?

After a moment's thought, she swallowed down the bite, washed it down with tea, and looked at Elena.

"Was he always like this?"

"What?"

Elena had been lost in her own thoughts. Her own worrying thoughts about what Pepper had told her, what it meant for her brother. Whether or want she wanted to know anything about what had happened to Pepper, and what it would be if she did. And if she would really be ready to hear the truth. Pepper's question took her by surprise. She looked up suddenly, her big maroon eyes focusing on Pepper.

"Oh." The realization of Pepper's question hit her. After a moment, she answered, "No."

Elena let out a long sigh, brushing back her long hair unconsciously as she wondered what else to say. "No, he wasn't," she said more certainly. "I suppose he always had trouble. I mean, our mother - well, my mother - and some of our older siblings, they never really liked him. I think that's hard to live down. But for me, he was my best friend. When we were young we were thick as thieves, and I think we were mostly happy and carefree. We're both a lot younger than the rest of the family, and were more or less left to our own devises. But..." Elena frowned, remembering. "Things changed a lot when his curse set in. He wasn't allowed to leave the house anymore; for years I was his only real connection to the rest of the world. Our mother and some of our siblings were convinced he was possessed, or that he had tainted blood. I think it was harder for him to not believe them when he had all that time alone with his thoughts, and the physical reality of his life - the wolf, I mean - seemed so much to agree with them. Everything became much darker during those years, and I think Soren internalized a lot of it..."

Suddenly Elena stopped. "Oh!" She looked anew at Pepper, her expression surprised and a little guilty. "Oh, I don't mean to sound like I'm making excuses for him," she said quickly. Elena had become so used to being her brother's defender in their family, but now was certainly not the time to defend Soren. "Sorry."

"Oh, no! It's okay!" Pepper said quickly, snapping her head back up from where she'd been focusing on her porridge, stirring it absently as Elena spoke.

"Naw, it didn't sound like ya were! I was just, well...I was just curious, I guess."

With a sigh, she pushed her tray away, her appetite diminished. "Guess I'm just tryin' to make sense of everything, is all. Figure out how much of what he told me was bullshit versus true. Y'know? I guess it don't matter...it doesn't change anything, I just..."

She bit her lip and took a deep breath. "I just can't believe he did that to me."