"Swiftly do stars burn a path across the sky,
Hast'ning to place one last kiss upon your eye.
Tenderly land enfolds you in slumber,
Softening the rolling thunder.
Dagger now sheathed, bow no longer tense.
During this, your last hour, only silence."

Velius' home was bigger than anything Fen'Fael could have guessed. It was bigger than either of the houses he had previously been in and those had been more akin to a small village than one person's place of rest. He could only hope he would remember his way around the place. It took Fen'Fael several attempts to take in that Velius had earned it all mostly by himself. His company – or whatever it was – did extremely well within the human cities.
He was simply amazed by the grandeur of everything, not just the scale of the building but the luxurious items within as well. He had asked if Velius was the son of a long line of noblemen or something similar, but that had just made the man laugh with amusement. It had turned out to be partly true, his father was a magistrate and his mother had been from a family of powerful mages; but Velius' fortune was mostly his own doing.

Fen'Fael also learned that Velius was married to some woman of similar wealth, but her family was not as renowned and thus they hoped the marriage would be of some profit to them. Velius seemed a little irritable about the subject and would not speak further about it when Fen'Fael tried to prompt the topic.
It had been a week since he had woken up and made the deal with the shem, but so far Fen'Fael seemed to be finding it a whole lot more enjoyable than the last two places. He wondered if it was simply because he had agreed to it this time, or if it was because Velius was strangely pleasant to talk too.
In either case, Fen'Fael's oddly placed enjoyment meant that he felt far more relaxed. It was still a far cry from being free, but he felt more hopeful than he had previously. The attitude of the other slaves was also a factor in the larger scheme of things. They were very happy in their work and when Fen'Fael had questioned them, they seemed to want to be here. Most even told Fen'Fael that they too had wanted to be free once and made a deal with Velius but after he had completed the deeds, they agreed to stay for as long as he wished.
Fen'Fael wasn't sure if this was out of thanks for what he did for them, or if he had scared them into it, but the way they seemed so happy about it, the answer was obvious to anyone.
It said a lot about a man – let alone a human – when even your slaves enjoyed working for you. Even if they didn't know any better about being free, slaves would know what type of people were good or bad. Or at least which ones to avoid getting angry.

Velius wouldn't allow Fen'Fael to leave the house, though he said this was mostly for the elf's own safety until the paperwork had been sorted out. Apparently one had to lawfully 'own' someone, but Fen'Fael could not have cared less about that sort of thing. All he knew was if Velius said he was free publicly then no one could do a damned thing about it. That was all that truly mattered to him at the moment. Freeing his family from this nightmare.
Though Velius had promised that if Fen'Fael behaved himself then perhaps he would be allowed to make use of the garden grounds out back. There would be no possible way of escaping at all since Velius had shown him the size of the walls of the gardens from within one of the tallest rooms. The garden as a whole was big enough to snugly fit in the whole clan, Fen'Fael had taken note. He noticed a small wooded area, enough trees to almost make one feel homesick for the outdoors. Needless to say, Fen'Fael longed to explore the garden. If for no other reason than to feel more at ease.

Most days were uneventful, and today was one such day. It seemed most of Velius' work was paperwork, but he also met with a lot of people. A lot of which, Fen'Fael noticed seemed high-class though there were others who seemed far less so. Fen'Fael wondered who each of them were and although he had been told to simply stay quiet and guard there had been the odd time he asked Velius a question or two about the more questionable people.
No answers were given, however. It was all small details and nothing for him to 'worry' about apparently. Fen'Fael's gut told him there was more to these thugs than Velius made it seem, but there was little he could do but try and trust the man's words. The other slaves did not know who they were either, only that they often met with the master and would be gone again without anyone really paying them any mind. The one thing they did know was that these people worked for Velius with some task or other.

It had been only a short time – maybe a couple of hours since they had made it to the study room. Some of the 'questionable' people had come and gone, one had seemed familiar to Fen'Fael, but he couldn't place the face anywhere. Either way the man had made the elf feel nervous and this caused him to ask though Fen'Fael tried not to pry too much into things when he took note of how unimpressed Velius seemed with him. Though it seemed less to do with him asking questions and more to do with the fact that it had distracted him from his job: guarding. Plus Velius' work was only being slowed down every time he had to stop to answer the elf's questions.
Now that he was quiet, the human seemed content with the elf and once again returned to writing down on the parchment in front of himself. Fen'Fael wasn't able to make out the words as the man seemed to be writing in a language he wasn't familiar with: Tevinter. His mother had taught Fen'Fael how to read and write elvish – what was known of it – and the more southern human tongue as most other clans spoke in that tongue after been enslaved for so long.

It took a few more hours of awkward silence before the elf finally felt relieved that Velius was done with his paperwork as the human put the various bits into a tidy pile and slipped them into one of his draws. Despite his work being done, the man seemed irritable again though he gave no indication as to why.
Fen'Fael just hoped that it wasn't serious and that he wouldn't actually be needed to guard the man just yet. After all he wasn't entirely sure if he trusted Velius still and he knew that he had no real loyalty for the man. Without either of those things, Fen'Fael was unsure if he would be able to go through with the deal to protect him. This would likely leave him in a bad way, but still, how could he protect someone he didn't even care about? Deal or no deal, would it be possible?
Fen'Fael's thoughts were taken from him when he noticed the shem had moved from his chair at the desk and was now peering at him from the doorway. The elf felt a little embarrassed that he had gotten so lost in thought that he almost tripped over his own feet when trying to rush forward.
Luckily the human found the amusing side of it and simply chuckled, rolled his eyes and then turned and walked out of the room and headed down the hallway.

"I expect certain people won't be too happy with how things go for a while, so I will need you to be more alert. Within the next few days, things should get..." Velius paused for a moment, an almost amused smile playing upon his lips, "...interesting." He finished off with a mild shrug.
Fen'Fael gave the man a pointed look, "and you're... happy about that?" He asked, seeming rather unamused. They passed a maid as they continued down the hallway. She gave a polite curtsey to Velius but upon seeing Fen'Fael she became nervous. The slaves paid him no mind for the most part but the servants who were paid to do a job? That was a whole other issue. Unlike the slaves, the maids were citizens who chose to be there, or as much as anyone could choose in a city run by mages. They also shared rumours between households of various types of rebellious slaves – who were jealous of them and would hurt them.
Of course most of that was untrue, normal slaves wouldn't even dream of harming another, for fear of being punished. Fen'Fael however, was not a normal slave and as such, the rumours of the things he had done to his previous 'master'? Those rumours had been exaggerated even more so. As if the truth had not been bad enough.
Fen'Fael scowled at the woman, causing her to back away into one of the offside rooms as if he were some wild animal. Though he felt that is truly what she thought of him. He was a 'wild' slave after all.
Satisfied with his ability to scare people into leaving him alone, Fen'Fael was somewhat glad of his position as guard as it meant he could get away with things such as this. He, in fact, found it pleasurable to have an easier time when it came with dealing with the rest of the staff at Velius' household.

"You may return to your quarters now, little one." Velius said as they came to his destination of his bedroom. It was still a little early, Fen'Fael noticed, but the remark of 'little one' had annoyed him. Again.
"I have a name." He said, irritably, "if you cared so much to use it."
A chuckled escaped Velius' lips, "and if you cared so much to call me master, I might consider to use it." He teased though Fen'Fael did not find him funny at all.
"I'd rather die first," the elf retorted, his eyes rolling as he turned to walk away, but before he could move very far Velius' hand caught hold of the elf's wrist. This surprised the elf, as he had not expected to be stopped for such a remark.
Their eyes locked, neither spoke for a moment before Velius said in an almost kind tone, "you won't be dying anytime soon, I happen to like you, as well as need you. Now try and get some rest. Tomorrow I want to head into town, and I need you with me."