@Wrathwyrm
"Ashir!"
He winced at Layla's screech and fought against the urge to skitter back and hide behind the counter he was busy cleaning. Ashir glanced up as the alchemist came storming into the shop, face thunderous. "Yes, mistress?"
She snarled at him wordlessly and he kept his expression carefully blank.
Like a lion on the plains. Don't attack, don't run, maybe it'll leave you alone.. Judging by the bangings and crashes that had been coming from the workroom, he assumed his owner and mentor had been having trouble with her latest concoction.
"I'm going out," Layla snapped at him, as though her failures were his fault. "I have a meeting with that pompous merchant prince- the one with the massive mole on his nose, what was it-?"
"Prince Neeraz, mistress?"
"Yes, that one." She waved a hand at him airily and he tried not to flinch away, having been condition to expect that had to strike as often as not. "Mind the shop while I'm gone. I expect at what's in the coin box to have at least doubled by the time I return, or there'll be hell to pay," she added with a warning glare and a curl of her lip.
Ashir nodded, keeping his eyes lowered as he adjusted the veil over the lower half of his face. "Of course, mistress," he murmured.
Fuck her. How the hell am I supposed to do that- we've only had one customer today, and she knows it! It's not my fault the bitch is losing custom since she's started getting meaner. Well, that wasn't strictly true. When others were around, Layla was the same woman he'd known since childhood, cool and blunt, but not unkind.
But now, when it was just the two of them... Her hand moved quickly, peevishly, searching for her coin purse, and this time he couldn't stop himself from flinching.
His back still stung from her last fit of temper.
With another scoff, and without so much as a backward glance, the alchemist stormed through the door and out onto the street.
Ashir sighed and allowed himself to slump against the counter slightly, closing his eyes as he forced himself to breathe. A part of him was disgusted with himself. There were plenty of slaves in Essyrn much worse off than he was- he should probably be grateful it had taken her
this long to treat him the way she was now.
With a small sigh he straightened up and finished cleaning the counter, then slipped behind it to count what was in the coin box. She wanted it doubled, after all.
Hateful bitch.