Buying fate
folder
Fantasy & Science Fiction › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
1
Views:
1,754
Reviews:
8
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Fantasy & Science Fiction › General
Rating:
Adult +
Chapters:
1
Views:
1,754
Reviews:
8
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
I think I should have the right to say that this is my story, but rules are rules and so; this is a work of fiction; any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental :9
Buying fate
Buying fate
by QuiveringQuill/Secret Quill
AN: Hope you like it. Was hit by a HUGE plot bunny and had to write it down. But I haven't checked grammatical errors very carefully, so there should be plenty of those. If you can't stand that, then you don't have to read. I just needed to write and I didn't want to kill my inspiration by being too self critical as usual. This happened for instance with my other story, Night's Visitor, and I'm still suffering from grammatical trauma from that one, which is the reason I haven't updated since June(!). Don't want that to happen to this one as well.
Chapter 1
The square was bursting in its seams with people, salesmen and saleswomen, animals screaming with discontent and children sounding as if in torture... some of them might even have been. Every square meter filled up with at least one human or an animal, well it was almost like this everywhere. Though, by the cages, there was quite a lot of space since that's were only the rich, the evil or the stupid went. The cages also held humans, though slaves were the word used for these poor souls. Slavery was a partly acceptable occurrence in the Country of East, but only among the rich, and as mentioned - the really sadistic and sick ones. For common people the idea of someone selling and buying human beings was despicable and wrong. So wrong that if a person from a lower class tried buy a slave, both he and the slave would disappear without a trace within a matter of days.
Anna was holding her basket pressed tightly against her chest, making sure that it wouldn't get swept away by the passing masses, or by a curious thief. She wore a simple green dress, short sleeved and with a black belt around her waist, on her feet she had two big ugly, but practical, boots and hidden in her boot, was a very sharp dagger. Anna didn't mind the crowd, but she didn't like the smell. She lived on the countryside in a small farm, but didn't earn her living by working with animals or in a field. She was a healer and an artist, painting the pictures her mind made up from fairy tales and dreams. Her art was popular enough that she could live comfortable alone, and together with her earnings from medicine making, she had more money than she could spend. “Until today” Anna though worriedly. “Please let me have enough!”
She reached her destination, stopping just a few meters from a cage filled with two human males. Anna detested slavery badly enough that her stomach protested at the sight, but until now she had always been to much of a coward to do anything to help. She dared to sneak a look on the males and swallowed the sigh of relief when she saw...
The owner of these two slaves was at the moment busy selling of four other, of his six slaves and he was happily counting every coin the noble man gave him. Anna's heart jump of fright when it hit her that she might be too late. All of the slaves might already be sold.
Quickly she checked the other slave merchants and saw that two had already begun preparing to leave. “Please Sir”, she exclaimed loudly in her desperation. “May I have a look at your last two slaves?”
The merchant with the coins turned towards her, first frowning at her simple clothing, then slipping back into character. “Why yes of course miss.”
He slipped the coins into his pocket and when he brought the hand up it held the key to the cage. “Which one caught your interest miss?” He asked. Anne gulped. “Both of them, please take them out together.” The merchant frowned but did as told. After all it was bad for business to question the customer.
The slaves were both tall males, both dark haired, but one with a shade of red and the just black. The one with red shade had blue eyes and the other dark brown. In her mind Anna named them Red and Black, to keep them separated from the label “slave”, but she wanted to ask them about their real names so that she could get to know their real selves. Both were dressed in worn gray shirts and blue leggings, they had nothing on their bare feet.
Red was maybe an inch taller than Black but more lean and Black had broader shoulders, a sign that told Anna that he had been well trained before being captured a slave. She didn't know about Red though, his body was too normal, except the height, too tell her anything. She just hoped that he wasn't a born slave. Those were often so broken inside that she couldn't even hope to help them.
Red and Black were staring straight ahead, hadn't even flickered their eyes onto her, but she would make sure to change that. She had to look them in their eyes to see if they had their spirit still. Though having no experience of buying slaves before she had seen some. Nobles sometimes worked their slaves too hard or they punished them - which was illegal, but they were noble and could get away with it- and then they brought the slaves to her, if they thought the slave was worth it. Those times Anna had seen some real broken slaves, slaves that no longer listened to their given names, slaves that neither smiled nor cried.
Anna stepped up to the slaves, motioning for the merchant to move out of the way, which he did – after all; all buyers checked the condition of the ware before the bargaining began.
She bent her head back and looked up at the two men. They stared on straight over her.
“I want to see your faces clearly, please look at me”, she strictly asked. They did as told, but with emotionless faces. Black had a spark in his deep eyes, just as she had guessed he couldn't possible be a born slave. But just to be sure she placed a hand on his chin, a motion that made the spark burst into a furious flame. She knew what he would be thinking about her now, that she wanted a sex slave. “Let him think it”, she thought. The longer he believes it, the longer this charade can go on and the safer for all of us until we leave town. She dropped her hand, the fire weakening a bit, and turned to Red.
His eyes were dull. “Please no!”, she wanted to cry. NO! It wasn't fair, not another one! When she brought the hand up to his chin they didn't even blink. “No, I will find the spark!” She thought suddenly furious and with renewed resolution. Her other hand came up to his other cheek. “I wanted you to look at me”, she said with faked irritation. “Don't stare like a dumb cow.” A blink. “Yes!”, she wanted to laugh, but kept her face still. Her right hand lifted and returned, full force with a smack. Red did flinch this time, and now finally could she see the small stirring of something in his eyes. Anna couldn't help but grin quickly apologetically at him, before dropping both hands and turning her attention back to the merchant.
“They'll do. Don't look to clever to me, though. How much?” The merchant bowed politely. “Thank you for your kind words. The taller one will be fifty golds and the shorter sixty.” It was a lot of money. A good horse could cost around thirty golden pieces and for Anna five golds were enough to feed her a month. “You've got to be kidding, sir. They are not worth so much!” Anna lied. “I offer you twenty for the tall and twenty-five for the dark haired.” They politely argued for ten minutes until Anna got a “good price” were she only had to pay 35 for the red haired and fourty-two for the dark haired. When they shook hands to seal the deal the merchant laughed. “You are one though business woman, miss. It was a pleasure meeting you.” Anna nodded with a smile, but didn't return the compliment.
Anna fished up the golds out of her basket, careful to make sure that no one saw just how much money she had in her coin sack... and paid. He thanked her again and then simply handed her the rope, which tied the two men together. “Here, this is all you need. These two won't make any trouble for you at all, miss. A slave is easily recognized after all and if they dared rebel in this city you can be sure that you'll have ten guards at your service within moments.” Anna forced a grateful smile on her face. “As if I wanted them to obey me. As if I would stay with them in this city.”
She accepted the rope and glanced over to the spot where the other merchants should be. Sadly they ad all gone. It was too late to help any more. And due to the general dislike of slavery the merchants wouldn't come back to this city again. Not in many months, maybe years to come. “I might never be able to save another slave again.” Anna swallowed a sob and blinked hastily to stop the tears. As long as she was inside of the city she had to keep her focus. Otherwise she would risk her and her newly bought slaves' lives.
by QuiveringQuill/Secret Quill
AN: Hope you like it. Was hit by a HUGE plot bunny and had to write it down. But I haven't checked grammatical errors very carefully, so there should be plenty of those. If you can't stand that, then you don't have to read. I just needed to write and I didn't want to kill my inspiration by being too self critical as usual. This happened for instance with my other story, Night's Visitor, and I'm still suffering from grammatical trauma from that one, which is the reason I haven't updated since June(!). Don't want that to happen to this one as well.
Chapter 1
The square was bursting in its seams with people, salesmen and saleswomen, animals screaming with discontent and children sounding as if in torture... some of them might even have been. Every square meter filled up with at least one human or an animal, well it was almost like this everywhere. Though, by the cages, there was quite a lot of space since that's were only the rich, the evil or the stupid went. The cages also held humans, though slaves were the word used for these poor souls. Slavery was a partly acceptable occurrence in the Country of East, but only among the rich, and as mentioned - the really sadistic and sick ones. For common people the idea of someone selling and buying human beings was despicable and wrong. So wrong that if a person from a lower class tried buy a slave, both he and the slave would disappear without a trace within a matter of days.
Anna was holding her basket pressed tightly against her chest, making sure that it wouldn't get swept away by the passing masses, or by a curious thief. She wore a simple green dress, short sleeved and with a black belt around her waist, on her feet she had two big ugly, but practical, boots and hidden in her boot, was a very sharp dagger. Anna didn't mind the crowd, but she didn't like the smell. She lived on the countryside in a small farm, but didn't earn her living by working with animals or in a field. She was a healer and an artist, painting the pictures her mind made up from fairy tales and dreams. Her art was popular enough that she could live comfortable alone, and together with her earnings from medicine making, she had more money than she could spend. “Until today” Anna though worriedly. “Please let me have enough!”
She reached her destination, stopping just a few meters from a cage filled with two human males. Anna detested slavery badly enough that her stomach protested at the sight, but until now she had always been to much of a coward to do anything to help. She dared to sneak a look on the males and swallowed the sigh of relief when she saw...
The owner of these two slaves was at the moment busy selling of four other, of his six slaves and he was happily counting every coin the noble man gave him. Anna's heart jump of fright when it hit her that she might be too late. All of the slaves might already be sold.
Quickly she checked the other slave merchants and saw that two had already begun preparing to leave. “Please Sir”, she exclaimed loudly in her desperation. “May I have a look at your last two slaves?”
The merchant with the coins turned towards her, first frowning at her simple clothing, then slipping back into character. “Why yes of course miss.”
He slipped the coins into his pocket and when he brought the hand up it held the key to the cage. “Which one caught your interest miss?” He asked. Anne gulped. “Both of them, please take them out together.” The merchant frowned but did as told. After all it was bad for business to question the customer.
The slaves were both tall males, both dark haired, but one with a shade of red and the just black. The one with red shade had blue eyes and the other dark brown. In her mind Anna named them Red and Black, to keep them separated from the label “slave”, but she wanted to ask them about their real names so that she could get to know their real selves. Both were dressed in worn gray shirts and blue leggings, they had nothing on their bare feet.
Red was maybe an inch taller than Black but more lean and Black had broader shoulders, a sign that told Anna that he had been well trained before being captured a slave. She didn't know about Red though, his body was too normal, except the height, too tell her anything. She just hoped that he wasn't a born slave. Those were often so broken inside that she couldn't even hope to help them.
Red and Black were staring straight ahead, hadn't even flickered their eyes onto her, but she would make sure to change that. She had to look them in their eyes to see if they had their spirit still. Though having no experience of buying slaves before she had seen some. Nobles sometimes worked their slaves too hard or they punished them - which was illegal, but they were noble and could get away with it- and then they brought the slaves to her, if they thought the slave was worth it. Those times Anna had seen some real broken slaves, slaves that no longer listened to their given names, slaves that neither smiled nor cried.
Anna stepped up to the slaves, motioning for the merchant to move out of the way, which he did – after all; all buyers checked the condition of the ware before the bargaining began.
She bent her head back and looked up at the two men. They stared on straight over her.
“I want to see your faces clearly, please look at me”, she strictly asked. They did as told, but with emotionless faces. Black had a spark in his deep eyes, just as she had guessed he couldn't possible be a born slave. But just to be sure she placed a hand on his chin, a motion that made the spark burst into a furious flame. She knew what he would be thinking about her now, that she wanted a sex slave. “Let him think it”, she thought. The longer he believes it, the longer this charade can go on and the safer for all of us until we leave town. She dropped her hand, the fire weakening a bit, and turned to Red.
His eyes were dull. “Please no!”, she wanted to cry. NO! It wasn't fair, not another one! When she brought the hand up to his chin they didn't even blink. “No, I will find the spark!” She thought suddenly furious and with renewed resolution. Her other hand came up to his other cheek. “I wanted you to look at me”, she said with faked irritation. “Don't stare like a dumb cow.” A blink. “Yes!”, she wanted to laugh, but kept her face still. Her right hand lifted and returned, full force with a smack. Red did flinch this time, and now finally could she see the small stirring of something in his eyes. Anna couldn't help but grin quickly apologetically at him, before dropping both hands and turning her attention back to the merchant.
“They'll do. Don't look to clever to me, though. How much?” The merchant bowed politely. “Thank you for your kind words. The taller one will be fifty golds and the shorter sixty.” It was a lot of money. A good horse could cost around thirty golden pieces and for Anna five golds were enough to feed her a month. “You've got to be kidding, sir. They are not worth so much!” Anna lied. “I offer you twenty for the tall and twenty-five for the dark haired.” They politely argued for ten minutes until Anna got a “good price” were she only had to pay 35 for the red haired and fourty-two for the dark haired. When they shook hands to seal the deal the merchant laughed. “You are one though business woman, miss. It was a pleasure meeting you.” Anna nodded with a smile, but didn't return the compliment.
Anna fished up the golds out of her basket, careful to make sure that no one saw just how much money she had in her coin sack... and paid. He thanked her again and then simply handed her the rope, which tied the two men together. “Here, this is all you need. These two won't make any trouble for you at all, miss. A slave is easily recognized after all and if they dared rebel in this city you can be sure that you'll have ten guards at your service within moments.” Anna forced a grateful smile on her face. “As if I wanted them to obey me. As if I would stay with them in this city.”
She accepted the rope and glanced over to the spot where the other merchants should be. Sadly they ad all gone. It was too late to help any more. And due to the general dislike of slavery the merchants wouldn't come back to this city again. Not in many months, maybe years to come. “I might never be able to save another slave again.” Anna swallowed a sob and blinked hastily to stop the tears. As long as she was inside of the city she had to keep her focus. Otherwise she would risk her and her newly bought slaves' lives.