Disclaimer: I own nothing from any of the Inheritance Cycle or the Harry Potter books.
A/N. Every night I make up stories in my head to help me fall asleep and this one never seems to get old. Enjoy.
Tear trails across Josephine's cheeks gleamed in the candlelight as she clung to the bedside of her dying father. His breaths were quick and shallow and she hastily wiped away the tiny streams as his eyes fluttered open.
"My brave little Joe…" he said smiling sadly up at her face. "Do not worry for me--- " Spasmed coughs took over his body and he shook from head to toe.
"Take the cording around my neck," he wheezed. She reached for it and delicately unclasped the knot from the loop and gently pulled it from under him. It was a lock of raven colored hair intricately braided into a necklace of sorts.
"It is your mother." He gasped between breaths. Her eyes went wide with understanding and held it up to a lock of her own hair. Hers was brown but definitely similar in length and quality. She had never known her mother and her father would refuse to tell her anything about her.
"Please understand… it was to protect you… " He said as if he had read her mind. He shuddered violently and breathed his last breath. She climbed onto his bed and cried herself to sleep next to his lifeless form.
***** TIME LAPSE*****
It had been nearly a week since her father's death and Joe was struggling to keep herself afloat. The tax collectors and debtors had taken nearly everything and she was left with nothing but the clothes on her back and enough money to rent a bed in community housing. She managed to get herself a job as a surf under one of Galbatorix's generals, but the labor was tiresome and the pay little. But today was her day of rest and she felt never as free from life and its burdens as she did that day racing through fields of wild flowers, weaving them into a lovely crown. It was a bit childish to be flitting about the meadows like that at her age, but she did not care. Her pace slowed as she entered the graveyard, her bare feet barely making a sound against the dirt path between burial mounds. She came to rest at her father's grave, laying herself gently over the broken earth.
"I miss you so much." She whispered and took in a deep breath of the ground's earthy musk. Footsteps approached from behind and interrupted her visit. She rose quickly. A brightly embellished man followed by to burly ones came nearer to her and she took a cautious step backwards.
"Are you Josephine Elmota Mantus?" The pretty one demanded of her.
"Yes." She replied slowly, feeling the distinct urge to run.
" I have come to seek payment on your father's debts. But, seeing that he is forever ill disposed," he said gesturing to the grave, "I will be expecting it from you." He held his hand open for payment but Joe shook her head.
"But there is nothing left; everything has been taken." Fear rose in her chest as the two men surrounded her and the demanding one forcibly took hold of her face. She strained to pry his hand away as he studied her features.
"You are somewhat of a pretty thing aren't you?" he glanced at the others. "Take her to the Whore house and see what you can get for her." He said as he shoved her head back and the two men took hold of her arms. She thrashed wildly trying to escape but they held on like a vice. She opened her mouth to scream, but her attempts were met with a vile tasting drug and soon she was shut off from the world.
She awoke lying on the floor of a wooden rowboat occupied by the same two burly men. Her limbs were numb and wrists bound together with coarse rope. The boat jarred as it made dock and she was lifted out of the boat and to her feet. She swayed dangerously and tried hard to focus on the man in green who was walking around her like a vulture. He stopped in front of her, looked her up and down once or twice, and then glanced at the two men.
"Fifteen gold." he announced. One of the guards holding her captive scoffed.
"Twenty-five."
"Twenty."
"Done." The man in green tossed the larger henchman a bag of gold and grabbed her arm. Her knees buckled below her and he yanked her back up.
"Walk." He growled, tightening the grip around her arm. She followed him somewhat absent-mindedly and took in the foreign surroundings. She was stable enough in the mind to conclude that she must be in a watery entrance to the dungeons of Uru'baen. The thought made her shiver from more than just the cold. He led her down an adjoining tunnel that was lined with rooms that were more like closets than they were rooms. She caught glimpses of the gaunt faces of scantly clad women and girls living in the tiny spaces. Bile rose in her throat and made something in her mind click. She yanked her arm way from his grasp and took off the other way. He soon caught up with her and pinned her against the wall.
"You think that's funny, do you?" he screamed in her face while shaking her violently against the wall. He put his mouth up to her ear.
"I think you need to be taught a little lesson" he whispered and forced a knee between her legs. She spit in his face and hit him as hard as she could with her straddled leg in the fork between his legs. Pain bent his body but he kept a clawed grip on her shoulder. He regained himself and raised a hand to strike her, but was stopped in mid swing.
"Playing with our work again, Roan?" seethed the new stranger. Joe dared to raise her eyes at the man. He was clothed in dark robes, smelled greatly of sweet tobacco, and his mustache curved upward like the smile of a Cheshire cat.
"I got a great deal on her sir." said Roan, who was clearly not in a great situation at all with his boss.
"How much?"
"Twenty Gold"
"Twenty gold!? We'll barely make a profit!" The boss roared, but Roan held up his hand and pushed away the hair hiding Josephine's ear.
"They look Pointy don't they? I think enough to pass her off as an elf." He said and smiled at his boss, who was concentrating hard on the matter.
"A fortune indeed," he agreed. "Take her to be prepped for sale." Roan dragged her to a room where she was stripped naked and strapped to a backless chair. She tried her best not to scream as an amateur sorcerer used dark magic to pierce her ears, nipples, and navel with permanent whoring rings. A tattoo was seared between her shoulder blades that held the coat of arms of their establishment. She was put into a closet of her own where she drifted into a fitful sleep.