The slavers would never explain how it was that they came to "acquire" an Isur child. There were times that even they themselves seemed surprised to see it there in their tents. When asked by a potential buyer, they would nod, and go on about how you had to "get em while they're real young," before their arm had developed and before they had grown to have the fiercely proud and defensive attitude the race was known for. They would say this as if they had a ton of experience regarding such things, but there would only ever be the one Isur child there, and not one of them could admit having ever even been near the mountain region of Kalea, let alone the race's home of Sultros. This lead many to assume that they had come upon it by pure luck, rather than by any of the actual "tactics" they droned on about.
Regardless of the how, the slavers had, in their possession, a very young Isur girl. She couldn't have been more than three years of age, though her appearance was comparable to a human child of half that. The slavers themselves were a group of four human brothers. Involvement in the slave trade had long run in their family, but this particular branch of said family was especially terrible at it. Their negotiation skills were laughable, often selling too low or demanding too high, and that was if they could manage to sell at all. The would frequently fail to take adequate care of their "products," allowing them to become damaged or failing to notice glaring flaws, even managing to have a couple escape them in the past. It was for these reasons that they had come to offloading their wares solely in Ahnatep - the slave market there had guarded cells for the slaves, and a designated auctioneer did all the talking. All they needed was to manage to actually get the slaves and make the journey there with as little incident as possible.
This particular slave, though, this Isur girl, was decidedly their big break. She was in mint condition being so young, with almost no preexisting physical or behavioral flaws, no education - she was a blank slate. And being Isur, they reasoned, would surely up the potential purchase price by loads. Endless were the potential uses and advantages that could be had from owning a creature with that arm, and they had twice the lifespan of a human slave. They were sturdy things, so you didn't have to worry about them wearing or breaking down much. Yes, if they could pull this off just right, maybe this could make up for all their mistakes in the past.
So, after much drinking and arguing, they came up with a plan. They wouldn't sell the girl, not right away. They would make an investment in her. She wasn't as useful a product as she could be, not yet. After all, her arm had a long way to go before reaching its trademark density and color. No, they would keep going about their business, buying, selling, trading slaves as usual, and keep her in the back, molding and shaping her into a product of true value. With one accommodating change. While stopped in Ahnatep, they hired on two Eypharian guards. The slavers weren't so dense as to miss that, with their track record, keeping a slave for so long was a high risk, so they needed to be able to deter trouble, whether from inside or out.
The refinement of their product began with language. They decided that the Isur would speak only Arumenic, the reasoning being that this would probably attract Eypherian buyers, while also minimizing risk that would come from her knowing multiple means of communication. The slavers' knowledge of the language was rough at best, and their two Eypharian guards would often scoff and correct the poor pronunciations, until finally they stepped in and took over the teaching entirely, if only to stop their language from being butchered further.
Another refinement was strength. The slavers didn't actually know if the telltale strength and muscularity of the Isur came with age as a part of inherent biology, or from their actual lifestyles and physical exercise. So, just in case, they frequently had the girl pick up heavy things and quickly move them somewhere else, adding to the weight and size of the objects as she grew enough to actually manage to lift them. This was helpful for when they were on the move, as they essentially had another pack mule to carry their things, but more often then not it just meant big crates were getting moved from one side of camp to the other with no real purpose.
Behaviorally, the girl had not had time to develop much of a unique personality or attitude, so, of course, she was conditioned to act as the ideal slave. Obedient, quiet, unquestioning, hard working. Orders were given regularly, ranging wildly from being standard tasks of physical labor, to being increasingly difficult and absurd, to even frankly impossible. Any questions, objections, or complaints were loudly interrupted and scorned until they stopped. Punishments varied as widely as orders, forcing her to become used to and even expect anything from verbal or physical abuse, to an increase in workload, to strange or demeaning consequences. Had a "born and raised" member of her race seen the subservient thing she would become, it very well may have made them sick.
Socially, the girl received little to no contact with anyone besides the slavers barking orders and the teachings of the Eypharian guards, the former always carefully restricted to rough Arumenic and the latter providing the "correct" Arumenic accent and speech she steadily formed. When other slaves were brought in, she was kept distant from them, and forbidden to have any interaction from them. In her time she would see a variety of slaves come and go, but never had the chance to know or understand who or what they really were.
The slavers themselves changed over the years. They'd slowly grown less incompetent and business could actually be considered fairly good. Whether this was due to their new found confidence in the ace up their sleeves, or from learning from past mistakes, or from the fact that they actually had real guards with them, it was unknown.
Time would take its toll however. The brothers aged as any other human would. After about ten years the oldest brother died. Tensions grew quickly at this point, and their Isur girl's slow aging had become an aggravating factor in what had once seemed such an important investment. Heated discussions rose about whether or not they should simply "cash in" and finally get their effort's worth in payment. After all, money wasn't as tight as it used to be, and they could take the potential cut in purchase price. Still another argued that the time and effort they'd already put in was all the more reason to just wait and get the full value they deserved. This position was supported by the pointing out that the girl had actually become fairly useful. She may have only looked around six years of age, but the ten years of work they'd put into her was obvious. She worked as hard, if not harder, than the slavers themselves in keeping up their caravan and in hauling things. At this point they had conditioned her enough that she would get to work without even being told, and should a problem arise or a mistake be made, she would take it upon herself to deal out the proper punishment. They had gradually been able to turn their attentions solely to the other slaves being transported, and the effort actually required to maintain the one they had been keeping was had dwindled considerably. It was almost unsettling, but their plan had actually worked. They had, working for them, the ideal slave.
Ultimately it was decided that they would continue keeping the child. The slavers themselves supplemented their ranks by bringing in extended family members who were no longer disassociating themselves out of pure disappointment. They recognized that it was getting more difficult to keep the Isur away from exposure to other languages, and began giving her work that kept her with the Eypharian guards. The guards, having already done more than was in their initial contract by helping teach Arumenic, gave little regard to the slave. The only exception being the almost smug satisfaction in hearing her speak with a thick Arumenic accent, with pronunciation and grammatical structure that had long put the slavers to shame.
Twelve more years went by. Another of the four original brothers was killed in a violent, drunken encounter at the Pillars of Dust while they had stopped in Ahnatep. A third had chosen to retire from this life of risk and constant movement, and was rumored to have settled down somewhere in the Sylira region. The fourth and youngest brother was the only remaining original founder of what had become a decently large and profitable slave caravan. They had moved many slaves in this time, and had even bought and sold another Isur - a male that had clearly entered the trade at a later age and brought a new found appreciation for what they had molded their own Isur girl into becoming.
She was 25 years of age now, still with the outwardly lagging youth that made her appear maybe 13. Discussions had begun again, about whether or not it was time they finally sold her off. The brother, the only one who'd been present for the actual original plan, was hesitant. He attempted to argue that, at this point, perhaps it would be worth it to simply keep her, that the benefits of having such a subordinate slave, something so rare, would outweigh the benefits the money might bring. After all, there was no telling if, after all this, they would even manage to get the full, deserved price for her. However, he was far outnumbered by the many other family members that had taken up positions in the caravan, family members with little grasp on the time and effort that had been put into what they considered just "another body to sell," and they had long began to suspect that he had grown emotionally attached to the girl. Interpreting his arguments as such, they accused him of going soft, of being a slave lover, and began to question his judgement and ability to lead the caravan at all.
The decision was made. Pride and the need to keep order and power won over. The next year, on their next stop in Ahnatep, the Isur girl was taken to the Slave market.
She was kept in a cell while the slaver brother discussed his merchandise with some official-looking sort of man. He was explaining features - taking the last twenty-three years of shaping, conditioning, and refining, and compressing them into a succinct list of reasons why this one would make them both more money than "the usual" stock his caravan brought in. The man wasn't exactly overly impressed, certainly not as excited as the brother was after the years of anticipation, but he was interested enough to go through a quick confirmation of some of the claims. First he had her speak some Arumenic, the thickness of her accent and accuracy of some of the more obscure pronunciations at least provoking a minor eyebrow lift. Then, he ordered her to punch the wall with her right hand until she bled. This displayed the level of obedience training, the thickness of her skin, and strength of her muscles. She managed to create a sizable hole in the wall, but the fact that she did indeed stop on having started bleeding, rather than having to be ordered to, was mildly disappointing. It was only a very minor break in skin, a the very tip of her knuckle, but it was a reminder, on top of her appearance, that she had not yet reached adulthood. Just the same, adequately satisfied, the man nodded, confirmed that she would be sold the next morning, and that he would do what he could to prod a higher price out of the bidders.
And so he did.
Early the next morning, the girl was prepared, extra dressing having been paid for by the slaver. She was thoroughly cleaned and decorated - years of dirt, sand, and labor, all washed away and covered up by experienced Undertakers. The blue of her arm, while not as fully developed as it one day would be, stood out immensely from the rest of her, and the women took care to accentuate it, along with her silvery veins and the muscular structure of each limb. Next, she stood behind a thick curtain, waiting for the man from the night previous, the auctioneer, to raise his voice above the rabble of the market, and begin her sale.
She did as she was trained and stayed motionless, quiet, and compliant, expression neutral, moving only when the guards would handle her to show off other angles. The bidding went on, many votes throughout the room competing for a purchase price, though how many of those were simply plants to raise the cost couldn't be said. Having never learned anything about the value of money, the girl would never know if the ultimate price had ended up what the four slaver brothers had originally envisioned, or if had gone below or above expectations. Such things didn't concern her, and when finally her Eypharian purchaser came to claim his prize, she didn't even think to listen to what her ransom price would be.
This was simply a transfer of goods. She was made to serve, to listen, to obey. It mattered little who was giving the orders, so long as she received them. Even after the years of servitude, she had never truly grown an emotional attachment to anything she was now about to be taken from. Not the four brothers, not their many family members who would come in and out, not the other slaves. Such notions had been beaten out of her, if they had ever been there to start with. As she was lead away from the Slave Market, she caught a glimpse of the one slaver brother. For a moment they locked eyes. He was smiling, his companions around him already counting coins, but in his face was the faintest trace of pain. The newly sold Isur slave girl did not reciprocate the emotion.