Disclaimer: Not mine.

C

C

"Oh nothing much." Old Bo says and pats my hand, which I withdraw immediately.

"You'll get one hour." I snap, surprising both myself and Dai with this sudden change of attitude. One hour is far more time than I'd ever want to spend in his sweaty company, but I'm desperately in need of the information.

"Five."

What! No way!

"Two."

"Settled."

I'm a bit startled when he agrees so easily. As is Dai, but for other reasons.

"Toren are you serious about this?" He wants to know. "I don't think that's a good idea."

I ignore his concerned looks and say: "Fine let's go then. I don't have much time. Dai I'll meet you later."

Doing my best not to notice him I get up and walk towards the door. The scraping of chairs on the floor indicates that at least one of them is following me. Unfortunately the owner is as well and I don't think I'll be able to get out before he reaches me. I turn around inwardly cursing him to hell and yell: "Listen, I gave you all the money I had without doing anything, so why don't you just leave me alone and stop bothering me."

When he doesn't halt in his avalanche like advance Old Bo decides to intervene. He simply puts a small, chubby hand on the hairy arm and to my surprise the guy actually stops and listens to his urgent whispering. Well if he wants to have me he'd better do anything he can to get me out of here in one piece. Even though I'd say he actually does have some measure of power judging by the way the other man behaves towards him.

"I'll see you at my place." Dai says quietly before he slips away unnoticed by the other two, with a last glance in my direction. He seemed sad, but I can't bring myself to worry about his feelings now. Have I really changed that much? To be honest: I don't know.

"It's your lucky day today boy." The owner growls at me eventually. "But remember, the next time you won't get away this easily."

I successfully suppress the urge to roll my eyes and only nod tiredly already turning towards the door once again. I want to get this over and done with as fast as possible. Even the thought of those sweaty, plump hands on my skin makes me cringe in distaste. I have of course learned to hide such sentiments, but they are there nonetheless. I think back on the nights spent with my Master. They were painful und humiliating, but at least he wasn't physically disgusting and besides then I didn't have a choice while I will now have to force myself to accept the touch of this irritating little man.

"Where do we go?" I ask shortly once we're out on the street, unwilling to have any more contact than absolutely necessary.

"My house." He replies evenly and turns to lead the way. I follow silently trying to mentally prepare myself for the next two hours. I don't make much progress. The streets are full of life and commotion, but suddenly all that does is to annoy me. Even the pleasant blue sky and the clear, moderate warmth of the spring sun do nothing to cheer me up. Much too fast we arrive at a plain house with red brick walls and a small blue door. The obsessive neatness of the building doesn't really give the impression that it belongs to him.

I duck through the door and hesitate for a second. Right there next to the door, very faintly, lingers a certain smell which I know from somewhere and that smell is linked to very unpleasant memories. I can't quite recall them now, but I know that the circumstances of that time were not something I'd like to experience again. Thyme, apples and something else I can't define. I shiver. As soon as I step further into the house though the smell vanishes and I'm left wondering. Where was it? Where did I encounter this before?

We're halfway up the stairs when it hits me. It's the incense the priests used back in that damnable city! Priests of Vhaeraun. Drow. I stop dead. All my instincts are suddenly screaming at me to get away as fast as possible. If he has dealings with Drow they might know who I am and start to ask questions about the death of my Master. Shit what am I going to do now? Damn, suddenly I can't think straight anymore. Panic is threatening to take over my mind. I have to get out!

"Um I'll be right back. Just give me a second." I mumble before hurriedly turning to head back to the door.

"What are you doing?" Old Bo asks clearly bewildered by my actions.

I've now reached the door, which doesn't open.

"Let me go!" I plead, not caring how pathetic I may sound.

"I thought we had a deal." He says. As if I care about that now!

"Yes we had. I ended it, now let me go!" I know I sound like a hysteric woman, but now that I'm down here at the door that smell hits me again and my panic increases tenfold.

"The door is not locked." He tells me from the top of the stairs. "Why are you suddenly so afraid?"

I try the handle again. The door still won't open. Shit!

"No." I moan in quiet despair.

"What is the matter with you?" He sounds irritated.

"Yes. Do tell. I would like to know as well." Says a third voice somewhere next to me. I whip around and of course it has to be a Drow. Who else would use this mildly sarcastic inflection, tinged with sadistic amusement and a certain bored curiosity? He's even wearing the black Mask of a priest and suddenly I have to fight the strong urge to drop to my knees. Only the fact that I still clutching the door handle prevents me from doing exactly that. My eyes are averted though before I even know what I'm doing. Six months of deeply ingrained obedience don't just leave you overnight. He must have been hiding under some sort of spell. I dimly remember something about Vhaeraun granting his priests that kind of power, but I don't care to dwell on it at the present moment. I have seen enough of the Drow to last me for a lifetime. Why do they always have to turn up around me?

"Bring him down." The priest is saying now. So there are more. Great! Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse. Old Bo stays mercifully silent during their descent and when I dare to look up I see two soldiers flanking him and one other Drow who is following behind them at a leisurely pace as if he's merely strolling down a nice, idyllic street. His garments are quite bright and colourful compared to what his people usually wear, but his smile is just as cruel as that of any other dark Elf.

I really need to get a grip on myself if I want to survive this.

Obviously since they were waiting for him in his own house, they want something from Old Bo. I only happened to be here at the wrong time. Seems like my abysmal luck is once again providing me with a lot of unwanted excitement.

"Ah, I know him!" The colourful one exclaims cheerfully pointing in my direction. "That's the whore I told you about. He and the other one caused the fight that got Ufrelyn locked up."

"Is that so. How interesting."

Oh no! I'm so dead! I pale considerably at his words. Any kind of interest from these people is probably going to be very bad for my continued well being. Without resistance I let myself be ushered towards a door to my left, which conceals a very spacious and surprisingly tasteful living room.

There are only two armchairs and of course the first one is immediately taken by the priest while Old Bo is roughly pushed down on the other one, the soldiers remaining by his side with matching expressions of dislike. This sentiment I understand perfectly. I didn't want to touch him either after all. Unsure of what to do I remain standing off to one side, hoping against all probability that no one will take notice of my presence if I just stay silent and don't move. There is some sort of proverb which perfectly matches the current situation. Out of the frying pan and into the fire, I believe it goes or something like that anyway.

"So now that we're all seated and comfortable," the priest is saying with a tone so pleasant it makes my teeth hurt, "we can have a nice little chat about that dreadful fight from last night."

So they want to know about it too! If I can get away somehow after this I'll have all the information for free! Despite the admittedly very slim chance of that happening I feel a bit more cheerful after this realisation.

"Well, " Old Bo starts, "I don't know very much actually."

"Well," the priest echoes him, "then you had better tell us all of it, don't you think?"

Faced with this thinly veiled threat the human blanches and nods. If that is even possible I'd say his sweat production has increased a bit.

"I will, I will. Certainly."

"Fine. Don't let me hold you back then."

Brrr this smile gives me the creeps!

"Yes, yes. The whole story." Old Bo mumbles obviously unnerved by the avidly watching Drow. "He was there", He points at me and thereby makes me want to strangle him on the spot. I really could have lived without this extra attention! "and that other Drow. As far as I know they got involved with the Hell Gang, which caused others to object when those guys didn't want to share. The whole incident developed into an actual fight that spread somehow and turned the whole building into rubble. The city guard turned up in the middle of the whole mess and arrested everybody they could get hold of, whether they were actually fighting at the time or not."

"Why is he" a brief nod in my general direction, "here now and not in a cell like the other one?"

"I don't know."

For a second I fervently wish he would just invent something and spare me the interested gaze of four pairs of vivid red eyes.

"Well?"

I know they won't be happy with my story, but there's no way around it and I don't dare to lie in case they have a spell which detects falsehoods.

"I don't really remember the night, but this morning I woke up next to an officer, so I guess we um... we must have had some sort of agreement." I finish lamely.

"We already know what happened that night up until the guards arrival." The colourful Drow tells me. "We have come here to find out where the prisoners are being held, but if you don't remember anything you're not exactly of much use to us are you? Maybe you should think about it for a bit." He suggests silkily with that cruel smile plastered all over his black skinned face.

I'm quite used to death threats directed at me by a Drow and force myself to stare back seemingly unimpressed, but it hurts that in order to save my own skin, I'll have to give up the only useful thing I've managed to acquire today.

"I suggest we make a deal." I say with the most confident voice I can possibly manage while being surrounded by a bunch of malicious killers.

"Really." The priest is obviously very amused, but if I break down now and show any weakness nothing will keep them from tearing me apart limb by limb. Sometimes I wonder if they can actually smell fear and are attracted by it. Damn what am I thinking? This is not the time for aimless philosophy Toren! Concentrate!

"Yes. I provide you with the keys and you help me get my friend out along with your own... well whatever he is to you."

"The keys, which you would get where?" He laughs in my face. "You show remarkable nerve for an escaped slave." I freeze horrified. "Yes of course I know. You gave yourself away there at the door. That mindless panic you displayed was very telling and besides, no one else I've meet of your people would ever feel the immediate need to kneel at my sight. But one thing does interest me. How did you know we were there?"

"I recognized the smell on you." I tell him flatly. "And I do already have the keys."

There's nothing more I can do now. He'll either agree and play with me for a while or he won't agree and but have fun playing anyway. I have been around the Drow for long enough to be aware of their deep rooted desire to live out and enjoy their domination of others. This is a game I was forced to play more often than I care to recall. I know my part in it. The part of the victim. As always.