Jade

Chapter 3

\"San la pasle, po mit...\" Jajan stopped in mid-song and sighed, leaning back into the steaming bath water. \"Such a child to have become such a man and Master.\" And what would it have been like to have been a Master? Or would I have been a Master, for would I have ever owned a slave? But then...If different, I had grown, different, I would have become. Would I have been like Virdan? No, I could never have been like Virdan.
And the memory came. It had to at some point.

The evening was humid and irrevocably hot, as always. His arms and back burned. His face burned. He\'d have sun poisoning by morning, not being used to outside labor. Digging irrigation ditches was especially new and extremely tiresome. The new Master was fearsome. Jajan wiped the sweat out of his face that was beginning to burn his eyes. His hair was pulled back in a falling down knot that was streaming salty sweat down his neck.
So far, he had avoided any more lashings since the first few he\'d gotten when he had first arrived, so the perspiration did not hurt so much anymore.
He pulled himself up out of the half-filled irrigation ditch, and started walking towards a slave quarter with two other Elemental slaves, whom he had learned where color Elementals. They had all held a sort of conversation before, until a whip-bearer started walking toward them, and so, had quieted.
He decided, he fancied himself a cold shower, albeit a short one, before he had his disgusting excuse for a dinner, and turned that way. Instead, he was summoned by a house slave, who gave him a rather pitying look before speaking, and ushering him inside.
\"Master Virdan wishes to see you inside.\"
\"I look a dreadful mess! I should shower first. It would only take a moment.\"
\"He doesn\'t care. He said after you finishes your work, you come inside. Nothing else.\" He nodded and followed the house-slave, beginning to adopt a foreboding feeling that only enhanced itself, the farther he went into the house.
\"Tsu, you\'ve brought him?\"
\"Right here. You wishes me to leave, Master Virdan?\"
\"You come back in an hour. Sharp. And bring a towel.\"
\"Master Virdan.\" He bowed a little, and left the two.
\"Jajan. You were a house-slave as well, weren\'t you? A little spoiled, though, it seems, by that red skin.\" Jajan shifted uncomfortably. He did not dare say anything. \"I would say though, I think that you\'ve adapted fairly well. You\'re lashings have ceased, and you\'re sunburns will eventually fade into a tan. There is one more thing you must learn, though.\" He kept his eyes averted, as was the rule always, with a slave. \"I heard Escii was too lenient with you. He let you do as you please. He let you say no. He was a fool.\"
A rise...he was only trying to get a rise...
\"Escii was good to die. He was a damned fool. Too soft.\"
\"You know nothing!\" Jajan stopped, and backed into the wall. Virdan only smiled.
\"I will crush what little spirit he was fool enough to give you.\" He walked over to the door beside Jajan and closed it. \"I don\'t feel the need to lock it,\" He said. \"The slaves know better.\"
\"Master Virdan?\" Jajan backed further into the wall.
\"If you say stop,\" He leaned toward Jajan and whispered in his ear, \"I will hit you with my fist. If you say no,\" He licked the rim, \"I will put my knee in your gut. If you do anything else that displeases me,\" He put his hand in Jajan\'s robes, while the slave choked on tears, \"I\'ll beat you any other way I see fit.\"
\"Please, I\'ve no experience of this.\" Virdan slapped him. The imprint left behind stung harshly.
\"I\'ll not warn you again. You see that futon. Over there, right now. You understand me perfectly. I know you do.\" Jajan went to the bed half-heartedly.
\"You are not doing things to my tastes. But you will. I assure you, Jajan. You\'re a dog, and you will obey accordingly.\"

Later that night, after being broken and raped twice more, Jajan awoke in his slave quarters, convinced he\'d been in a nightmare. But his bruises and soreness, proved quite the opposite. He carefully picked up his few belongings and fled under cover of night.

The water had grown cold, for as short as it would seem, the memory was very long.
He sat there, still for a moment; blank in thought, but filled with a mix of animosity and an odd sort of loneliness too. It was strange, he thought, as he began to scrub his body vigorously, that he did not cry. Perhaps, his eyes would tear, only so much that one tear would streak his cheek. But that was strange too. If he were to cry, why not cry several tears or none at all? Why just the one? Indeed, he did not understand himself.
\"Such a strange world.\" A thought struck him. \"And such a kind and beautiful Master! Surely he will let me use my skills with water on the solstice!\" With that, his spirits were lifted somewhat, and he finished his bath, and went on to make he and his Master\'s lunch.

Ris took off his outer robe, and lay what few things he had bought during the day, on a table by the door. He stood still after. There was an eerie silence in his house, and until he saw Jajan asleep on the boucheau just outside of the kitchen, he was almost sure he\'d run away. Of course, he had been gone five hours longer than he said he would be. Still, the uncomfortable stillness hung in the air, and his slave\'s expression was not relaxed at all. He would have left him to sleep, had his dreams not seemed to have been so troubled. He nudged him very softly, so as not to startle him. Jajan\'s eyes opened, full of an array of expressions he did not like. Fear, hate, excessive pain, panic, etc..., but they melted away, and his eyes were suddenly unreadable.
\"Are you well?\"
\"It was only a dream I care not to have.\" Ris still looked at him concerned. Jajan sighed. \"But dreams choose their own times and witnesses.\"
\"Indeed. They are taunting retrievals of things not wanted. I understand well.\"
\"I abhor dreams.\"
\"Do you abhor them all?\"
\"All of my dreams are of past.\"
\"Qasr y toa.\" Jajan caught his eyes, wondering if perhaps he could read into them.
\"One day, I will ask you about your past, and then I will tell you every single thing that you want to know.\"
\"There is much about me.\"
\"I am sure. It is in your eyes. All of it. But I am not a mind reader. So, one day I shall ask you, and maybe you will tell me.\" Ris sighed. \"I made crapes. I put them in a cooler box.\"
\"Crapes? What kind?\"
\"Strawberry for a dessert, and chicken and cream for lunch.\"
\"I\'m afraid it is a little to late for lunch now. I had to meet with a couple of people to falsify your papers. It took a lot longer than I expected. It would be about five now, I think.\"
\"My...papers?\"
\"Yes. You are mine now. Legally, if anyone else but Uor, Nhak, or myself reads those papers. They are quite convincing. Virdan himself could not argue in court with me, which was my goal.\"
\"I...thank you.\" Jajan bowed his head, nearing tears.
\"Jajan...\" Ris sat carefully down on the boucheau. He put his arms around Jajan lightly. \"Would it be wrong of me to offer an embrace?\" Jajan shook his head, unable to speak for a moment, and let Ris pull him into his arms. He rested his face in Ris\' neck, not letting the tears fall yet, enveloped in the warmth of his Master\'s arms. And then, Ris felt the cold moisture of Jajan\'s tears on his skin. Jajan drew in a breath.
\"He did not even let me eat or shower first.\" Ris held him tighter. He was finally letting go. \"His house-slave told me to come inside, and then he left. Virdan said horrible things about Escii until I spoke out of turn. He touched me, and told me if I said anything, he would beat me. He said I was a dog and would obey accordingly.\" Ris gritted his teeth, while he put his ruffled Jajan\'s hair, and held him closer. \"He slapped me, when I told him I was a virgin. And then, he told me to go his futon, and tore my robes and touched me everywhere, even with his mouth. When I said anything, he slapped me, or punched me, or kneed me. Eventually, he pulled out his whip.\"
\"You...\" He pulled him even closer, \"Couldn\'t stop him from whipping you?\"
\"They chain you. You can not stop them. Then, he...San...it was so painful...he just did it, and then he left me there for a while. His slave came in later and cleaned me up, but he left me there too. I asked him why. He wouldn\'t answer me. But...Virdan came back twice that night. The slave finally carried me to my bed. That is when I ran away.\"
\"Jajan...I am so sorry.\" Jajan started crying loudly and continuously. He sobbed, and moved his head to face Ris.
\"Ris, whatever for?\"
\"I tore you from your freedom, so soon after this.\"
\"I would have been caught and you know it.\"
\"Maybe. But with no Master, you could have controlled all your water. Don\'t you think you could have been you own Master, then?\"
\"I have known nothing but slavery. I would have done none of the things you say. You took me as yours. I thank you for it. If you had not, some one else would have.\" He gulped and embraced Ris. \"You are a most wonderful man, Ris. Escii knew to be wonderful, but he did not understand that a slave was what everyone else was, but I think he thought me as a loved and privileged pet. I do not begrudge him for that. I love him and he was much sheltered from the world. You, Ris...you are wonderful and different from anyone I\'ve ever known. You know that I am the same as you, even though here, I am different, and if here, you are my Master; I am happy, then.\"
The words melted into the air, once said-gone, but not forgotten, and never once before and never again said.
Ris pulled Jajan\'s head out of his shoulder slowly. Ris\' face looked satisfied; mellow.
\"The truth finally leaves your lips. Perfect truth. It is what I have been trying to tell you that I do not mind you knowing.\" He sighed, and looked up into the eyes of his slave. \"If only this world were not this world.\"
\"It would be wonderful.\" Jajan\'s face was red with the aftermath of his disconcertment.
\"Come on. I will wash your face, and then we will eat what you\'ve made. Perhaps, afterwards we can choose some things to wear to festival?\" Jajan nodded, and, smiling and sniffling, followed Ris to the bathroom.