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Slave Girl 2: Chapter 20
🕑 Added 2022-12-09 19:24:19 +0000 UTCThe next few hours are humbling, humiliating, and downright terrifying. I am taken to a guard station, stripped down to my underbreeches, and thrown in a cramped stone and iron cell with three foul smelling lowlifes. I thank my Mom’s good food and Ceres’ nourishing bounty for growing me so big as I believe it was only my size that kept the others from hassling me. For most of that time I sit on the narrow bench, elbows on knees and hands clasped together, worrying about what would happen to me. And more so, much more so, what would happen to Rosa. I was all she had and in one moment of madness I had left her completely alone in a foreign land. And because of me she was also blind. My failure was so profound that I didn’t even know how to fully grasp it. All I could do was pray.
In the cell I am left to rot. At no point am I given an opportunity to plead my case or are charges even presented to me. As I reflect on the scene again and again the more I understand that the pair that came to harass Colly and I had simply been bait, and boy had I chomped onto it. What a fool I’d been. This wasn’t the country where we had the freedom to be ourselves. Where slaves and freemen broke bread together after a day of hard shared labor. Where we took care of things honestly, directly and with our own two hands. Where you stood up to bullies and gave them something to think about the next time they wanted to go pushing their weight around. This was the city. The place where weak men hide behind the laws of old men. Fuck!
The sky outside our tiny slit of a window had turned rosy by the time I see a guard again.
“Quintus Quintilianus?”
My head pops up. “Yes?”
“On your feet. You are being released.”
Relief doesn’t even come close to describing the explosion of emotion in that moment. I close my eyes and praise every last power that I had prayed to these past hours. “Oh thank the gods!”
I am lead down a short hall to an office where there stood a group of familiar faces and one unfamiliar one. There was the officer who arrested me, the pair I had beat up, the orange robed Lydia, and a slender middle aged man in a fine lily white toga that stood at the wizard’s side. Both he and Lydia were clearly upset, downright fuming, but whereas he would not even look at me Lydia glared at me with a hot anger that raised the short hairs on the back of my neck.
The officer speaks first. “Due to conflicting eyewitness accounts, a testimony of your character by these two respected citizens of Grumentum, and the fact that these kind gentlemen agreed not to make a fuss about your unprovoked assault, we have decided not to press charges.”
“Thank you.” I say to the officer, and then to Lydia and what I assumed was her husband. “Thank you.”
“Aren’t you forgetting us?” The man who stole Colly’s squab smiles, a new gap now present in his shit eating grin.
“Apologize to the men.” I am ordered.
In another time I would have spit in their faces but I had more than myself to worry about now. With my beautiful demon firmly held in my mind I clench my jaw, swallow my pride, and summon the vomit inducing words. I couldn’t even meet their gaze. Staring at the man’s chest I say in a low tone. “Thank you citizens.”
“I’m just happy a lesson was learned.” The man in the brown tunic says. “You did learn your lesson, didn’t you Quintus?”
“Yes. I’ve learned my lesson.” I nod. “It won’t happen again. I…apologize.”
Right there in front everyone I am made to dress. My pack is returned to me…significantly lighter than when I last held it. The guard’s hard eyes stare me down, daring me to make a complaint. With my head bowed low I sling it over my shoulder. I swallow hard and say softly. “There was a red neckband. A sort of woven collar.”
“Was there?” He says. “Well, it ain’t here now.”
NO! My chest seizes in actual physical pain at the loss of my collar. Pushing my emotions way down deep inside I take a long, deep breath through my nose and slowly nod. “Yes officer.”
“You are free to go Quintus.” He says. “Next time we won’t be so lenient.”
“There won’t be a next time.” I mutter.
And with that Lydia, the man with her, and I walk from the jail.
We are just out of earshot when the man turns to the wizard. “I will see you at home my pet.”
“Yes Sir.” She whispers. “I am so sorry for this.”
“We will talk about it later.” He finally looks at me and holds my gaze a moment. “I hope you appreciate what my wife did for you tonight.”
“Yes Sir.” Assuming just a hint of my submissive training I bow slightly and say. “I am sorry Sir. It will not happen again.”
He nods, appreciative of the respect I showed him. “You are a hot blooded one. Your Lady has much work to do yet.”
“Yes Sir.” His words are a dagger to my heart. My actions had reflected poorly on Rosa’s reputation as a dominant. Could this day get any worse?
With that he heads off in a different direction and leaves Lydia and I making for her tower. We had only gone a half a block before Lydia takes me by the arm and pulls me off to the side of the road. “You brash young fool! What were you thinking?”
“It was a shake-down. They planned it.”
“So you just oblige them and go right along with it, huh?”
“No, I mean…” I sigh, my shoulders sagging. I had no will to defend myself anymore. “Yes, I am a fool Lydia.”
“It wasn’t a shake-down, it was a slap down. It was a message.” Lydia explains. “You were probably spotted as soon as you walked into the city with a demon at your side. Being seen with a Kobalos later on would have only confirmed their suspicions of your loyalty.” She looks left and right, making sure nobody was listening in. “Tonight was a warning. A warning not to be so…open about things. To respect the balance. They probably would have just hassled you if you hadn’t actually gone and attacked the men. Fool!”
“Lesson learned.” I say, feeling properly chastised. “It won’t happen again Lydia. I am sorry you had to get involved.”
“Apology accepted, though I don’t know why. I barely know you.” She says. “Listen, in Grumentum the peace is kept through a delicate balance between the two consuls. Both sides must be respected. There is a veneer of civility beneath which a war rages for control of the city.”
“I didn’t know.”
“Yes. I understand that now.” She says. “But Collywaddle did. And she will be punished.”
“What? Why?”
She looks at me like one would an idiot. “Because she’s a slave Quin. She needs to be disciplined. She allowed her stomach to get the better of her good sense.”
“She never made me strike those men. She was just hungry and happy after our day together. She never meant any harm.”
“Oh, I know.” She says. “She’s barely stopped crying since she got home. I’ve declared 20 lashes for her but I waited for you. To give you the option of administering them. You are the one who suffered from her foolishness after all.”
“What? No. Not me.”
She stares into my eyes. “Are you sure? She will receive them either way.”
It takes me a second to get the underlying meaning of her question. If I held the whip…I chose the force of the lashes. I clear my throat and nod reluctantly. “Very well.”
“Good.”
“How is Rosa?”
“Out of her mind with worry about you.” She says. “You scared the life out of that poor woman Quin. She truly loves you.”
“Hahhh, yeah. I know.” I look to the heavens as I blink the tears away. “I know.”
“Quin…I realize this is not the best time for you but we need to talk about your slave.”
I rub my aching temples. Just by the tone of her voice I knew this wasn’t going to be good. “Just tell me Lydia. Please.”
“You cannot allow Rosa to pursue magic.” She states as bluntly as I’d asked for it. “You will stop her from following this path.”
“Right. Of course. Anything else?”
“Quin!” She barks, snapping me to attention. “Listen to me! This…thing she has, this gift, where she can see magic, it is dangerous Quin. Too dangerous to be in the hands of a slave.”
“Rosa is harmless.”
“No, she is not. She might be the most dangerous person I have ever met.” Lydia’s expression goes grim. “I demonstrated a simple Droning spell for her, just a common incantation that leaves a sound echo in the air for a few minutes.” There is a pause, Lydia’s eyes seeing back through time to something that shook her to her core. At a whisper now she continues. “Rosa…plucked the very magic from my fingers! She played with the power as a child might play with water and sand. Sculpting it, shaping it, holding it. I’ve never seen anything like it before. My Droning spell…sang for her. It sang!” She shakes her head. “If she were not blind, still completely untrained, and so charming, I would have already reported her to our local council and she would be dead right now.”
“What!? You would do that?”
“Yes Quin. I would.” She says slowly and carefully. “She is an Amazon, sworn enemy of the Empire, and she…is…a…slave. Why are you struggling with this? No matter how much she loves you she will want to be free at some point. Especially once you have no hope of stopping her.” She pats my arm. “I know this is a lot. But it’s not too late. Luckily she cannot tap into the energy herself. And without being taught to do so she never will. Just promise me that you will not have her trained. Promise me that Quin.”
I do my best to take in all I had just learned. “And you will not report her?”
She lets out a huff and nods. “If my Sir asks me directly I cannot lie to him. But yes, I will keep her secret. For now.”
“The same goes for my Lady of course.”
“If you must. Just understand Quin, her life depends on you protecting her from this knowledge.” She says. “Promise me?”
“Yes, of course.” I say. “I only want what’s best for her.”
“I cannot imagine how difficult it is for you. To be Master and boy to the same woman. I cannot imagine.”
“Yeah.” Closing my eyes, barely keeping it together and nearly welling up with tears right there on the street, I plead. “Can I please see her now?” My voice trembles despite my efforts to hold it in. “I really need to see her.”
“Alright Quin.” Lydia says softly. “Come along then.”
Comments
Grimbous
I meant it like a judge where she has handed down her sentence without actually carrying it out yet. I've clarified it though. Thanks nope.
nope
With the line "I've given her 20 lashes but I waited for you." Do you mean "I'd have"? It's a little unclear whether Colly was already given 20 lashes and Quintus is supposed to give her more, or whether she was waiting to administer the 20.
