“If you’re telling us all of this, then I suppose you have an idea of what we can do with her?” I say.
“I do!” Rose says, smiling. “I’m going to hire her as a maid at my house! I’ve always been a bit worried about leaving my two siblings alone whenever I went away for a long while, so I usually asked my ex-husband to check up on them every now and then, but if I had a maid to take care of things, I would be much more relieved!”
“Aren’t you worried about leaving your little brother and sister home alone with a person you barely know?” Kate asks.
“Taking into account the harsh training that slaves get these days, I very much doubt that Ella would ever do anything to harm the children,” Rose says. “It will also be a while until I leave again on such a long journey away from home, so I’ll have plenty of time to get to know her and to learn what kind of a person she is.”
Rose pauses.
“Besides,” she says, “Daren and Eiden both made me realize that I haven’t been completely honest with myself until now regarding the way slaves get treated in our society. What Eiden said was completely true. I really have been turning a blind eye to this whole situation because it was more convenient that way. I have no excuse. Even if I can’t change the way our society works, I can still try to help where I can. Seeing Barry tackle the problem so directly in front of my eyes gave me the courage to finally start doing something about it myself! And for now, the way I can help is to provide a home and a sense of purpose to this poor unfortunate girl.”
“Okay, you’re all patched up now!” Daren tells Ella.
“Thank you, sir,” the girl says.
Now that her bruises are gone, and I get a good look at her face, I suddenly realize that Ella could very well give Rose a run for her money in a beauty contest. Even though her messy black hair and the tattered rags she’s wearing aren’t doing her any favors, her face has all the features that make a girl look beautiful without any makeup. She has a small nose, high cheekbones, full lips and large brown eyes, while her body’s proportions seem almost perfectly balanced. If she’d lived a normal life, and she had attended a school like all other girls her age, she would have likely been very popular. Girls would have killed to have her in their groups, and boys would have courted her every single day. She would have had a life that most girls her age could only dream of. If she’d lived a normal life…
“Alright, then!” Rose says, as she takes a sideways glance towards all the people who are standing on the side of the street, staring at us. “We shouldn’t linger here any longer. Let’s go get Hadrik and Flower, and we’ll take another route towards my house.”
When Hadrik sees us enter the shop to call for him, he looks a bit disappointed. It appears that he would have liked to browse the shop’s wares a bit more before leaving.
“Why did you all come to get me so early?” Hadrik asks. “Weren’t we gonna wait for Flower to come back?”
“Some… stuff happened which made us decide to pick another route towards my home,” Rose says. “We’ll tell you all the details when we get there.”
“Uh-huh,” Hadrik says. “And I’m guessing those details will also cover how you all recruited a new team member in my absence?”
“You catch on fast!” Rose says, with a playful smile.
“Name’s Hadrik,” Hadrik says, as he approaches Ella, “but most friends call me ‘the dwarf’. Pleased to make your acquaintance!”
The dwarf extends his hand towards the girl, but she gets scared, and she instinctively jumps back when he gets near her. Ella then looks at both me and Rose, seemingly asking for our approval, and when I nod to her, she hesitantly grabs Hadrik’s hand and she shakes it weakly.
“You’ve never really met a dwarf before, have you lass?” Hadrik asks Ella, with a grin.
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” Rose says. “Like I said, we’ll go over the details when we arrive at my house. Come on, let’s go get Flower.”
We found Flower a few minutes later, on one of the streets we’d taken when we first came into the city. She’d already finished replacing the chain on Arraka’s amulet, and she was also surprised that we didn’t wait for her at our designated meeting spot, but she agreed to postpone her questions until after we’d reached Rose’s house.
We took a somewhat roundabout way this time around, in order to make sure that nobody who saw the earlier scene was following us. As we advanced into the city, the scenery began to slowly change, and instead of broken down shacks, we started seeing more elegant houses, and even a few mansions. The putrid smell on the streets was also long gone by the time we’d finally reached Rose’s house. To our surprise, despite her previous claims of living in relative poverty, Rose’s house was in fact a very large mansion, with two floors and a yard the size of a small park.
“Kate, you can stop suppressing your magical aura now,” Rose says, as we walk across her yard. “My siblings don’t know what a banshee is, so there’s no need to hide from them!”
“Rose, I don’t mean to sound rude,” Hadrik says, “but didn’t you tell me that you and your two siblings were living a modest life here in the city?”
Rose blushes.
“I am not the one who bought this house,” Rose says. “This is where I used to live with my old husband, before we got divorced. He told me that he didn’t mind me keeping this house for myself, since he owned many other mansions in better areas of the city. I meant to refuse him at first, but I had both my siblings and my sickly father to care for at the time, and it would have been very hard for me to continue living with them in our old cramped house.”
“Ah, he was trying to win you back with a little parting gift, was he?” Hadrik asks, with a grin.
“Actually, no,” Rose says. “The main reason why we broke up is that Enrique was never really the kind of man who would be happy being tied down to only one woman. After we got divorced, he told me that during our marriage, he felt like a caged bird that was denied the freedom to soar the skies, in search of stars that shined brightly in the night. He also told me that no matter how many stars he’d end up visiting, I would always remain the sun that outshines them all, and that he’d never love another woman with as much passion as he’d loved me.”
Rose giggles.
“It was always hard to take him seriously when he said things like that,” she says, smiling.
“Look, it’s Rose!” I hear a young girl shout from a distance, as she comes running towards us. “Rose is back! Come quick!”
The girl, who appears to be Rose’s eight year old sister, is now waving towards her nine year old brother, and they both race across the yard, until they finally reach us.
“Rose, look!” the girl says, with a proud tone in her voice, as she takes something out of her pocket and shows it to her. “Billy’s already fourteen years old! And he’s just as lively as ever! See?”
“That’s really good news, Suzie!” Rose says, smiling, as she pats her sister on her head. “I’ll admit that I was a bit worried about him while I was gone, but I see now that I had no reason to doubt you!”
I notice that the virtual pet toy that Suzie is holding in her hand looks incredibly similar to my stat device. Even more so than I remembered. Could it also be some ancient device made by the lessathi which holds hidden powers like the ‘fortune teller’s trinket’ that I have in my pocket?
“Uh, Suzie,” I say, “can I borrow that toy of yours for a second? I just want to look at something.”
“No!” the girl says, in a loud voice. “It’s mine! You can’t have it!”
Honestly, I don’t know what else I was expecting when I asked that question.
“Alright, then how about a trade?” I say, as I take out my stat booster out of my pocket. “I’ll let you play around with this while I take a look at your toy. Deal?”
The girl tries to feign indifference when she sees my stat device, but it’s easy enough to see that I’ve piqued her interest. Eventuall
y, she gives in and agrees to temporarily trade her device for my own. As I study her toy closely, I notice that there is a small marking on the side which looks much like a bended fork, but aside from that, there is nothing else that stands out. I didn’t even feel that faint tingling sensation that I usually get when my stat device tries to attach itself to my aura. Maybe it is only a toy after all.
“You sure it’s a good idea to just hand your device over to her like that, Barry?” Hadrik asks me, grinning. “Aren’t you worried that she’ll completely mess all of your stats while she plays with it?”
“Nah,” I say. “I made sure to lock all the stats before I gave it to her. The only thing she can do with it right now is look at the screen.”
Once I’m done looking at the toy, I give it back to Rose’s sister, in exchange for my stat device.
“You tricked me!” Suzie says, with a pout. “Your toy is broken. It doesn’t do anything. That’s not fair!”
“Life is never fair, kid,” I tell her, as I put my device back in my pocket. “It’s better to learn that while you’re young!”
“Don’t you listen to him, Suzie!” Rose says. “Barry is just grumpy because his parents would only give him broken toys when he was a kid.”
Suzie giggles.
“Poor Barry!” she says.
“Poor Barry!” her brother mimics her.
“Rose,” Daren says. “Could you show me to my room? All I want right now is to lie down in a bed for a while.”
“Certainly!” Rose says. “Follow me, I’ll show you the way!”
“We’ll come too, we’ll come too!” Rose’s siblings say, in unison.
“Okay, okay, you’ll come too!” Rose says, smiling.
She then turns to us.
“Please, make yourselves comfortable!” Rose says. “You can come inside the house and wait in the main hall if you like.”
“Nah, we’re good for now, thanks!” Hadrik says. “We’ll just sit at one of these picnic tables.”
“I’ll be right back!” Rose says, and then she goes with Daren and her siblings inside the mansion.
“Okay, now that we’re finally here,” Hadrik says, as we all seat ourselves at one of the many garden tables in Rose’s yard, “will someone please tell me what happened to Daren that made him turn into even more of a stick-in-the-mud than usual?”
Kate and I exchange a look, and then we start giving Hadrik and Flower a full recounting of the events they missed while they were shopping.
“I can’t believe this!” Hadrik says, after hearing our entire story. “So you’re saying that now Flower and I are the only ones who can’t attack any of the locals because we weren’t there when Eiden cast his spell?”
“Actually, I never had that problem to begin with,” Flower says. “I’m not participating in the tournament, remember? Their spell doesn’t affect me.”
“Great!” Hadrik says. “Just great! Why did I have to enter that armor shop? They didn’t even have anything worth buying!”
“Excuse me, master,” says Ella, who is seated right next to me. “I don’t… mean to interrupt, but you haven’t given me any task to perform since we arrived here.”
“Oh, it’s fine,” I tell her. “Don’t worry about it. You can just sit there and rest for now.”
“Y-y-yes sir…” the girl says.
Instead of calming her down, my words seem to have only made her even more restless. She is now fidgeting nervously and sweating all over as she stares intently at the table in front of her.
“There you are!” Rose says, as she approaches us and then seats herself next to Flower. “Daren’s already unpacked his bags. Would you like me to show you to your rooms?”
“We can do that later,” Hadrik says. “Ella’s been sitting there, biting her nails for the past fifteen minutes because she doesn’t have anything to do. Don’t you have any work around the house that you need doing?”
“Oh no, I couldn’t possibly make her work so soon after what she’s been through!” Rose says.
She turns to the girl.
“Ella,” Rose says, “you can go sleep for as long as you need, and after you’re well-rested, I’ll give you the tour of the house. Is that okay with you?”
Ella suddenly jumps to her feet, with a very scared look on her face.
“There’s no need to give me the test!” the girl says. “I promise I will work my hardest! I won’t disappoint you! I promise!”
Her sudden outburst temporarily renders us speechless, as we all pause to look at each other for a few seconds.
“Ella, nobody is testing anyone,” Rose says. “Please, sit down, you must be really tired…”
“Yes, sir…” Ella says, with a high pitched tone, almost as if she were about to cry, and she sits herself down again.
“Rose, what is she talking about?” I say. “What kind of test is she referring to?”
“I… don’t know…” Rose says. “I’ve never heard of anything like this before.”
“She’s talking about the test of loyalty,” Kate says, all of a sudden. “It’s a test used to make sure that prisoners don’t try to run away from their captors. They used it quite a bit at the Beacon.”
“I don’t get it,” Hadrik says. “Why does the girl think that we’re testing her? We never implied that we were doing anything of the sort.”
“Because you’re all being too nice,” Kate says. “And that’s always how a test of loyalty begins. At the Beacon, every now and then, a member of the staff or a complete stranger would start acting very nice and considerate with one of the orphans, out of the blue. After some time, when they were sure that they’d gained their trust, they’d suddenly say that they wanted to help them escape. If the orphan believed them, and followed their instructions, they would be recaptured by the very person that tried to help them, and told that it was all a test of loyalty that they had failed. Then they would either be beaten senseless for breaking the rules, or they’d be killed to serve as an example for all the other orphans. This way, if anyone ever actually tried to help one of us, we’d never believe them, and we’d choose to remain prisoners, out of fear.”
Rose gasps.
“My gods, that’s horrible,” she says. “But if what you say is true, then how are we going to convince Ella that we’re telling the truth?”
“We’re not going to convince her,” Kate says. “Even after hearing us discuss things openly in front of her like this, she still probably thinks it’s all just part of an elaborate act, in order to make her lower her guard. She must think that once she agrees to rest, she’ll have failed the test, and we’ll deem her worthless, just like that noble.”
“Is there anything we can do to make Ella less suspicious of us?” I ask Kate.
“Yes,” Kate says. “First of all, you’re going to have to stop trying to pamper her. It’s only making things worse.”
“Alright,” Rose says, with a determined look on her face, as she turns to the girl. “Ella, you’re going to march into that house, and bring me a glass of water. The kitchen is visible from the main hall. It’s equipped with a sink with running water, and there are some glasses on one of the upper shelves. Did you get all that?”
“Yes, sir,” the girl says, as she gets up in a hurry. “I’ll bring it to you at once!”
As the girl runs towards the house, Rose lets out a big sigh, as if what she’d just done had cost her a great deal of energy.
“I hope I wasn’t too harsh on the poor girl,” Rose says, with a concerned look on her face.
“We’re going to have to think of a way to make Ella get more accustomed to her current situation,” Kate says. “Ordering her around like this can only serve as a temporary solution.”
As we all sit there and think, Ella comes out of the house, with a glass of water in her hand, and with both of Rose’s siblings running around her in circles as she walks.
“I think I might just have an idea!” Rose says, with a smile, as she loo
ks at the three of them.
“You’re very pretty!” Suzie tells Ella, as she approaches us.
“Uh… Thank you, miss— sir,” Ella says, looking a little confused.
Suzie giggles.
“I like you,” she says. “You’re funny!”
“I think I have the perfect job for you, Ella!” Rose says, after Ella brings her the glass of water.
“W-w-what would you have me do, sir?” Ella asks.
“I want you to follow my little sister Suzie around wherever she goes, and I want you to listen to her every order for the remainder of the day!” Rose says, with an evil smile.
“Of course…” Ella says. “I will not let you down.”
Suzie gasps.
“She’ll do anything I say?” she asks.
“Anything you say!” Rose says, with a smile.
Suzie squeals happily when she hears Rose’s answer.
“Ella, follow me,” she says. “I know exactly what we’re going to do next!”
“Yes, miss— sir…” Ella says, as she follows the little girl into the mansion.
“You sure that was a good idea?” Hadrik asks.
“I’m positive!” Rose says. “Now come on, I’ll show you each to your rooms, so you can unpack.”
After we each settled down in our own rooms, we went to meet outside with Rose, who needed to go visit the Sparrow’s district, in order to bring all of her collected herbs to the sick. She said she’d most likely come back by sundown, and that she’d leave the house in our care until then. As we all wave goodbye to Rose, Suzie suddenly comes out the front door, pulling Ella by the hand, while rushing towards us.
If I did not know that Ella left with Suzie a little while ago, it would have taken me a minute to figure out whose hand the little girl was holding. The former slave girl was nearly unrecognizable, as she was now wearing an elegant green dress, while her hair had been cleaned up, and meticulously braided. She looked stunning. I guess this explains what the two of them have been doing for the past two hours.
Magium: The Mage Tournament: Book 1 Page 31
