Her bare feet took her in the direction she needed to go, following the words of the old man with the facial markings. Her careful measured steps took her across one lofty bridge and past cobbles that lead to a huge facility where her caravan had first stopped before it dissolved, dividing itself up. The Traveler's Complex was a massive shadow on the land, dominating the west bank of the sulking Kenash River. Haeli passed it, her eyes watching another caravan reforming, animals being hitched to massive wagons and men wading around loading supplies.
There was industry here. The movement of people was contrary to what the River seemed to project as its almost still waters sluggishly flowed by. Haeli was struck by the contrasts. Kenash was full of them. The city for sure had its own charm, vastly different from Lhavit's core-deep beauty. There was no breathtaking skyglass here, only stone and moss and an old feel to everything around her. As she walked, the hem of her dress showed its age, tattered and fraying from where the fabric escaped the stitching. She wished, in that moment of staring at her hem, that she could morph things beyond flesh, so that the upkeep of cloth could no longer be her concern. Her feet were dirty too. She noticed that outright and frowned, thinking she should have thought to brought her shoes. How would that look? A barefoot person in a tattered dress coming to look at slaves?
Haeli kept on her path until she reached the low slung building with its dark interior and its flat roof that served as a platform for auctions and audiences. She paused at the building and stared, wondering what it was like for people who were waiting inside for someone to have need of them. Haeli had to circle the building once to figure out how to get in. There was no clear entrance in her untrained eyes. Any other human would have followed the landscaping and the columns to the main door, but Haeli missed the visual clues to the more subtle entrance due to the berm and seating on the roof. When she finally found it, she cut across lawn that was well clipped and stepped over a brush to find the stonework path that lead to the doorway. She opened it, slipped in, and found herself at a reception.
There was no one around.
She walked deeper, past offices and came face to face with a man who blinked at her appearance and automatically checked her for a slave collar and markings. Finding none, his brow furrowed and he smiled a greeting. "Good day, M'Lady. How may I assist?" He asked, his slow Kenashren drawl lazy, much like the river outside. Haeli studied his features momentarily and noticed the size of his hands. The fingers were calloused, either from weapons or whips, and that made her uncomfortable. She automatically held her ground though everything in her told her to take a step backwards.
"I was told to come here. I need help at my business and it was explained that help could be acquired here." She answered, remaining neutral and undefined. She would have said what she needed immediately, had she known, but she did not know... not exactly. Nor was she familiar with how these things worked. He looked her over once more, his dubiousness obvious. She was but a girl, nothing fancy and nothing that indicated she had any sizeable wealth about her.
"Show me your hand, M'Lady." He said abruptly, and Haeli raised hers, knowing of which one he spoke. The brand flashed in the light and the man's eyebrows and stance relaxed slightly. He could believe she was Freeborn, barely, but Dynasty? Never. The brand made sense. And with practiced eye he looked her over again. She was lovely, but not in the striking way a true beauty had. Her limbs were strong, well muscled, and not the delicate nature that most Dynasty women enjoyed. Her skin was not flawless and her nails had dirt beneath them. And there was something about her, an air of newness, like she was a babe taking her first steps. It appealed to his darker nature, the inner beast that liked to see fear cross the faces of those beautiful. He wondered what she would look like afraid and almost smiled. He also wondered, in that moment, if she'd be prettier with her skin welted slightly and bleeding from lashes.
He smiled then.
"I'm sure I can find you some help." He said, turning and beckoning her to follow him. This would amuse him, this trip into the bowels of the Auction House. For he sensed she'd never been in such a place before and he was almost eager for her reaction to it. They finished walking down a hall, he lead her down a wide darkened stairway and into what he affectionately dubbed 'The Stables.' The good here were not kept in rooms or on cots. No, not in his operation. He kept his livestock in stalls that were lucky if the hay was fresh and water was available. Each slave was well chained to the wall, either by the neck or by the throat. All of them wore only thin shifts or loin cloths that gave them no privacy or modesty at all.
"What do you need help with? It will help me better assist you in your selection. I'll know what to show you. What sort of work do you want done? Do you prefer male or female, young or old?" He added, looking thoughtfully at Haeli. He couldn't begin to guess her profession nor what she needed in a slave. When she said nothing at first, he prompted her, as if used to guiding people unaccustomed to the merits and flaws of slave ownership into the life.
"Look... Ms..? I didn't catch your name. I'm Marshal Sitai. I need to know some cold hard facts. Let's take these first two for example." Marshal walked into the first two stalls and unclipped first one chain then another from the wall using a key he carried on his neck to unlock the chains from the iron rings they were fashioned too. He lead out a small woman, pretty, perhaps in her forties and a male that was large, dark skinned, and looked younger but far more violent. Without a thought he reached out and as they were both standing before Haeli, he unclasped the woman's robe and then the man's loin cloth until they stood naked before the Master and potential buyer. Both kept their eyes downcast and said nothing.
"The woman is not strong. She can lift no more than thirty pounds and is past her child bearing age. That makes her cheaper. What adds to her price is that she can cook amazing meals. Do you need her services? Like all slaves she can clean, requires very little food herself, and needs only a warm spot by a fire to sleep in the winter." Marshal said, running his hand down the woman's back and gripping her shoulder affectionately. "I won't have her long due to her ability to cook. She'll go to a new home in the next auction. She's also not so old that she can't provide pleasure to males in your household or even unto you if that's what you want." He added, slapping the woman lightly on the bare cheek of her ass. As Haeli continued to look at the woman, wondering why the slave didn't meat her eye, Marshal moved on.
"Now this one is younger, stronger, and more expensive. He can lift perhaps a hundred pounds and work all day. He requires a firm hand and fed regularly to keep up his strength. He's also intact if you want him to pleasure you, though we can remove his testicles if that's a problem. We do the service on sight." Marshal said, running his hands down the males's body and cupping the items in question. "So the selection is varied. We have human, some inhuman, and a few kelvics. If you don't like the size and shape or sex of one, show me what you want or like and I'll see if I have something more to your liking. But you'll need to tell me what you want." He said, demanding.
Haeli was in shock. She'd seen Okomo treated with more reverence than these people were given by their handler. And the fact that the man was willing to maim the male if that was her pleasure was astonishing to her. And he wanted a list... a list?... of what she wanted the slave for. Haeli froze, her eyes on the man fondling the other man's parts. She glanced up at his face and saw the raw pleasure he was taking from the fact that she was uncomfortable and the fact that the slave in his hand was terrorized by the thought of a knife being taken to his body.
Haeli knew she had to speak, but she had no idea what to say. Her mouth opened, breath was drawn, and she met Marshal's gaze.
"Haeli." She said abruptly, forcing her lips and tongue to form the word. It bought her time and the man sighed. "Haeli, answer yes or no to my questions if you will." He said, all out of patience. "Will you need one for hard labor? Working land, tilling, gardening, cleaning?" He asked. She nodded, a soft "Yes." Coming out of her mouth.
He smiled a cruel cold smile.
In a way working with the girl was like working with a slave, breaking them slowly until they didn't realize they were yoked in to a life of hard work. "Cooking, cleaning, sewing, mending, crafting things?" He asked, forceful, as if his words were a lash upon her skin. "No." She said softly, feeling tortured and wanting to leave. But she was trapped by his eyes and his words, and his manipulation. Kenash was not Lhavit. And this man was not a safe one.
He stepped closer, daring himself and daring her to react.
"Will you want one for pleasure? To service your physical needs? One that's bigger than you, stronger? Or something delicate you can control?" He asked, crowding her personal space and getting in close, touching her lightly on her shoulder. Haeli nearly shivered at his words, hating what he was doing, how he was making her think, and what he was making her feel.
She almost reached for Fang's form, to suddenly turn the odds and make him feel the fear she felt of him transposed back on himself. Fang was stronger, longer of tooth, and more dominant than the girl's shape she wore now. But she held herself still, gathered her courage, and looked up at him meeting his gaze. "No. I require none of that. I just need someone to lift boxes and garden." She said, glancing at the man and woman, still standing at attention for Marshal. He smiled, backed off, and turned to lead them back into their straw lined stalls, tethering them back to the wall.
It was as if that was some kind of test and she'd passed it. Because once the words were out of her mouth, he was walking away, leading her down the rows and rows of stalls, allowing her to look in, letting her ask questions. There were many slaves down in the bowels of the building. It was mere days before an auction so many of the one hundred stalls were filled. There were men, women, and children. All of them looked dead in the eyes though. And perhaps more than anything that made her feel dead as well.
She nearly passed over the shadowy stall in the kelvic area where the pale man was chained. The stall wasn't filled with misery. Instead there was a raging boil that was almost tangible coming out of the shadowy darkness. But the creature had no chance to hide within the welcoming windowless confines. His flesh was too pale, his body to corded with lean powerful muscle. And his eyes, even in the dark, caught the light from the other stalls and reflected back eyeshine that was fierce.
Haeli paused there, staring into the near darkness of the molding confines and smelled the unwashed body inside and wondered why the hay here lining the stall was not freshened like the other stalls were. "That one. May I see that one?" Marshal seemed amused. He nodded though, taking a long coiled whip from his belt, and stepping inside. He unfurled the whip and made sure the creature in the corner could clearly see he had it. Then he unlocked the chain tethered soundly to the wall and dragged the pale creature forth. He flicked his wrist and double looped the length of chain around the male's neck, forming a choke chain that rode higher than the leather collar affixed around his neck.
Then he dragged the young man forward, not even giving him a chance to stand and walk on his own. Being pulled through the straw wasn't half bad, but when his bare knees hit the stone of the hallway between the stalls, they scraped painfully. The slaver didn't seem to notice. Haeli did.
"On your knees. Don't even look at her." Marshal said fiercely, his voice filled with the pleasure of perhaps another tangle with the creature he dragged forth. He let the whip kiss the chilled bare flesh of the male's back, not striking him with it, but indeed just dragging the handle across his shoulders. "This one needs some more lessons in etiquette, but I would not begrudge you his purchase." The slaver said, smiling slightly. A growl sounded from the creature as he started to lift his head and Marshal reversed the whip and thumped him painfully on the head abruptly. "Eyes down." He said once more, firmly, then ran the handle of his long whip down the man's spine and into the crevasse his nether cheeks made.
"These kelvics don't understand words so much as they understand power. This one needs dominated. We've had to pin him down several times and make him understand that." For all Marshal's show though, Haeli noted a nervousness in the man. The whip trembled as it ran across places on the kelvic's sensitive skin and slightly pressed his genitals. She believed Marshal that he'd held the kelvic down, pinned him as he'd called it, but there was a repressed murderous violence in the creature that Marshal saw and Haeli saw... and saw too that Marshal was afraid of. Whatever had happened, it hadn't ended badly for just one of them. It had ended badly for both.
Haeli wanted to ask what kind of Kelvic the man was, how old, where he was from.... She wanted to know a million more things. Instead, while Marshal was doing what he was doing, all but violating the creature, Haeli stepped forward, ran her hand down the white hair at his head, and cupped his chin where his head dropped towards the floor. She gently pulled his face up, where she could see it, and looked into his eyes.
The rawness there caused her to stagger. There was so much in his gaze; rage, pain, loss, a myriad of emotions none of which were settled. It was gone in an instant, cold again, unfeeling. But she was sure she saw what she saw. Haeli released the creature immediately, stepped back, and touched Marshal on his arm, more to get him to stop what he was doing, than to get his attention.
"I'll take him." She said softly, certain. Haeli was unsure if her certainty centered around her immediate death looming in the future or that what she was doing was the absolute right thing to do in this case. She hoped it was the later, but suspected it was the former.
