Chapter 30: The Ransom
During the day, Maelui could not believe what he had heard the night before, nor could he understand very well what his master had meant by the words. Yes, Maelui had noticed that he resembled his master, how they both had black hair and both the same frame and facial features almost identical. Veassen had a more serious face, but aside from that Maelui could tell they where very alike. But Veassen had spoken like they where related, but that was impossible if he had been born into slavery.
Maelui questioned if he had been lied to. Maybe, maybe he was Veassen's brother after all, and after those injuries Veassen had lied so that he could use him as a slave instead of a brother. The loss of memory Maelui had was ruining him, confusing Maelui completely. Maelui did know elvish, but he had even forgotten some translations, such as the meaning of Maelui. Veassen only spoke an English language to him, and when Maelui had heard Veassen speaking elvish to Rumil, he could tell Veassen was not accustomed to speaking elvish. But Veassen had elvish ears; even if one had a long cut down it, a slice, Veassen still had elvish ears.
Veassen, Maelui and Rumil soon learnt, kept very much to his own. Veassen gave harsh orders to Maelui, but he did not pay much attention to Maelui or Rumil during the day, he spent most time in his chambers.
"Maelui, meet me in my study after you bathe." Veassen ordered. Maelui nervously looked up from the floor he was scrubbing to nervously ask a question.
"Sir… What did I do wrong?" Maelui asked, shaking all over. Veassen smiled.
"I should never have told you 'only for punishments'. I have work for you to do in my study." Veassen noticed how relieved the young elf became.
"Yes, sir. I will go bathe, sir." Maelui stood up, turning around and leaving the room. Rumil watched from his cage as the slave left the room, heading outside to bathe in the stream.
"What are you staring at?" Veassen asked Rumil.
"I am looking at his freedom. Why must I stay in this?" Rumil asked. Rumil was in a small cage, much to small for an elf of his size, he was bent over, deformed to be able to fit.
"Because you are a temporary prisoner and he is my slave who will be here for a while, if you have a deformed back from the cage then I do not care. It should not lower the price I get for you." Veassen said, giving Rumil's cage a kick. Rumil whined softly.
Later, a freshly washed Maelui entered. He saw Rumil's cage looked like it had been kicked, so placed it properly and gave Rumil a little piece of apple he had brought with his from his supper the day before. Rumil gratefully ate it, the leftovers he usually received where not at all very fresh.
"Thank you." Rumil whispered, resting his head down on the metal bars of his cage in preparation to sleep. Rumil found very little sleep in his current position with his face on bars, but he feel fast asleep because of his lack of sleep. Rumil had only gotten two hours of sleep in, the night before.
Maelui pushed open the door to Veassen's study. Veassen paced the room bare-footed, awaiting his slave's arrival.
"You took a while." Veassen said as he realized Maelui's presence.
"I'm so sorry sir." Maelui bowed his head.
"Does your mark still hurt?" Veassen asked. Maelui did not realize what Veassen had meant forever since he had arrived at Veassen's home his back ached from the work he had to do and he had forgotten about the slight pain his hip had.
"What do you mean- Ai!" Maelui cried out when Veassen slapped his hip where the burnt V was.
"Still hurts, eh." Veassen said, sitting down at his desk. Maelui, with one hand on his hip, slowly walked forwards towards Veassen's desk.
"You got me by surprise. It does not hurt too much." The young elf whispered.
"Whatever you say Maelui. Can you write?" Veassen asked. Maelui nodded.
"In elvish, and the script of men." Maelui muttered. He was not sure how he knew that, but he did. He also had faint memories of a red-haired boy, but they where faint now.
"Good. I need your elvish skills to write a letter for me." Veassen gave Maelui a quill and ink and pointed to a piece of parchment on the table.
"Write what I tell you to on that parchment." Veassen said, waiting for Maelui to walk over to the parchment before he continued commanding.
"Write the following: Dear Haldir, you may recall two men taking off from Lorien with your sweet little brother Rumil… You and your parents must miss him so. I will tell you now; I have your valued brother locked in a cage. He is doing poorly; he is pathetic and cannot handle my treatment. If you want to have him back, I will need one thousand gold pieces. That is, if you ever want to see Rumil again. If not, I know two men who will love to take Rumil from me, they will have a good offer to make and who knows what will happen to your brother in their care. Might I add that these two men fancy elves, they fancy hurting them in many, many different ways. That there, at the bottom, is blood my dear Haldir, your brother's blood, and much more of it will be spilled until I have a response from you." Veassen stated. As Maelui finished writing, the elf looked up.
"But there is no blood on this page, my lord." Maelui whispered as Veassen took the paper, not even reading it over.
"There will be." Veassen said, beckoning Maelui to follow him.
Veassen went over to Rumil's cage. The elf slept, his eyes shut tight because of how unhappy he was. Veassen reached in the cage, grabbed Rumil's arm and pulled out his blade from his boot. Rumil woke up and Veassen was observing Rumil's arm. Rumil saw the blade and the look on Veassen's face, and the worried one of Maelui's, and grew nervous.
"Now you see Maelui, if you where doing this, you'd want to find his vein. It means treating the wound after else he could die, but it will add some horror to this ransom we are sending, so we want a lot of his blood on the parchment but not so it covers the words-
"VEASSEN! Get your elvish back over here!" A man's voice, Maelui realized it to be the voice of one of the men who had brought Rumil to this place, called. Veassen put Rumil's wrist in Maelui's hand.
"You cut him, and treat the wound you make after so we do not have a dead elf on our hands. I will go see this visitor." Veassen said softly, giving Maelui the blade and parchment as well.
When Veassen left the room, Maelui picked up the blade and looked down at Rumil's arm, then at Rumil's face. Rumil's gaze was at the floor, but Maelui saw the tears that glittered on Rumil's cheeks.
When Rumil realized he was being watched, he looked up briefly, his sad eyes meeting Maelui's.
"I'm never going to see my family again. I'll be dead before they ever earn enough to pay whatever ridiculous ransom this… this evil man wants for me." Rumil whispered raucously.
Maelui dropped Rumil's arm. Rumil looked up from the floor quickly when he saw that, and gasped when Maelui cut himself on his thumb, and rubbed his bleeding thumb over the parchment.
"You… you cut yourself." Rumil whispered. "You are such a kind elf. Thank you…" Rumil whispered, reaching out to put his hand on Maelui's shoulder.
"If I ever get out of here, I will never forget how nice you are treating me… Maelui, that was your name, correct?"
"Yes." Maelui whispered.
"I will tell my brothers of you, if I see them again. I will make sure you are not forgotten." Rumil said. Maelui heard the door to the cave open and sprang up, knowing better than to be caught talking sweetly with Rumil.
To be continued…Caprice Ann: Yes, everyone seems to have a thing for dripping wet elves... Would it be the same if Haldir were dripping wet with his own blood, though? It might sting him if you tried to lick off his blood so I guess you'd have to handle the elf differently...
Bberry06: Yes, the sure can be. They can be like Yáviel, or they can think that all people on the Internet are evil monsters that want to abduct and molest you.
Haldir's Heart and Soul: Yáviel is like that...
Karone Evertree: Okay, to get there, go to my fan fiction profile page go to my website, click on LINKS and click on Jedi Gollum's deviant art page... Yáviel tends to be materialistic, but before she met Tonus and when she did not have children and her brother was still alive and working for the Mirkwood army, she was a well-to-do lady with fairer dresses than she had now. That's one of the reasons Tonus wed her, it was not like she was a poor commoner at the time, she came from a well-to-do family and her brother earned a lot of money that she used to buy her clothes, her blankets and such. Once her brother died she inherited some money which lasted a little while after marrying Tonus, then she was broke and Tonus started to steal from his father to pay for his wife's food, and soon Yáviel had not as many luxuries as she did when her brother earned money for her... Not to make you hate Yáviel for being so greedy, remember that Veassen and his father are the greedy ones here! Oh and Tonus is very happy with your offer even if you prefer his baby brother to him, but he says if he could not marry Yáviel he'd marry my office chair. Did you know Tonus got the office chair pregnant? Well, it's a strange story that me and Bberry06 have been talking about... Odd indeed...