Rasgen sat on the bench in his bath house while his half elf servants attended to his body, the only bath more luxurious than the one reserved for the Duchessa Aiwenor. "She is aggressive, master." The collared one said as she scrubbed the claw like marks where Nua had bloodied him during their prior coupling. Soft hands traced over his back where little red streaks ran along his length.
"Passionate, I would say, but yes, she is." Rasgen tilted his head and cracked his neck a little. "Very strong…"
The collarless half elf dumped a bucket of water over his head, "Do you love her?" She asked.
The hot water was refreshing as it swept away the sweat from his recent session with his wife to be. "No. I do like her, that hasn't changed, but love? If I have a choice, I'll never love again, losing Sobella, letting go of Lod- Tir… you can't know what that was like."
"Yes, we can." The two said at once and with more ferocity than he'd ever heard from them.
It was enough to cause him to blink and snap his eyes from one to the other in surprise, the motion of his body creating briefly rising waves that swept over their bare skin. They thought nothing of nudity with him, nor he with them, it was as natural as anything, as they'd been bathing him his whole life, but never before had he truly seen them as women, just part of his life in inextricable ways.
They didn't answer the unspoken question, they simply resumed washing him in silence. Rasgen ran through their years together in his mind, searching for clues to a mystery he never knew existed. 'Who they were before they fell into my family's hands'.
"You know we were not born here, master. We never went into debt, you know we were captured generations ago. Did you think we sprang into being on the battlefield in the shackles of your ancestor?" The collared half-elf asked in an almost taunting voice while lifting his arm to scrub with the thick brown bristle brush.
"I had a husband, once. He died on the first day of fighting." The collarless half-elf said quietly. Her head was bowed while she scrubbed his chest.
"Mine died in the same battle where we were captured, I only know because I saw him die." The collared half-elf answered.
"Other than each other, they were all the family we had." Her sister replied with a hushed and reverential voice used for the much loved dead.
"So yes, we understand." The pair said in unison.
Rasgen was alone in the bath with them, there was no one to hear a breach of protocol. And yet he couldn't say what he wanted to.
Instead he said to them, "Then you do understand." It was the closest thing to an 'I'm sorry' he could say to them. "And you'll understand why, when we leave here and return to my quarters, I want one of you to bring me a bottle of wine."
"Yes, master." The collared half-elf said as they finished washing him up.
"Good." Veema said while her erstwhile sisters finished cleaning up their room, "let me see your slates before we go see Teacher for more lessons." She brushed her blonde hair back and stared at each of the three, Lenah looked more than a little sheepish as she handed over the slate where the math problems were only half solved.
Straen looked marginally more confident, as hers were almost done, but even at a glance, Veema could see that she made more mistakes.
To her surprise, however, when Shi handed over her slate, despite the crude scrawl, it was all finished, and all correct.
Veema looked up to Shi and then scratched her head from where she sat at the small table, the three slates were arrayed in front of her, and she wasn't sure what to say.
"Shi… how did you…?" Veema pointed at the slate, "You didn't cheat off anyone did you?"
Shi beamed proudly. "It's easy, like mate counting. I used to hear crawlmaker doing math out loud when the pairs were busy. One pair produces one to two per year but without certainty since sometimes it doesn't work. So it isn't always the same, he used to count off the numbers of whelps and then figure out how much each pair made over time, get an average by adding them all and dividing by years, then the ones below that would…" Shi cut herself off at their stares.
"I used to think… I used to think they'd go to the heaven place…" Her face fell… "at least the numbers work, that was true…" She sniffled and rubbed her eyes. "'Scuse me." She muttered, only for Veema to stand, approach, and hug her.
"It's OK, Teacher says we get knife time if all the school work gets done. You like knife time, right?" Veema asked and stroked the long blue hair down the length of Shi's back.
"Yeah…" Shi said, brightening up a bit. "Hugs are nice too though."
Veema took the hint and didn't break the hug even when it was obvious Shi was starting to cheer up.
Lenah and Straen were scribbling on their slates again at the table, their hands flying so fast that their white hair bounced behind them until they hunched over at the same moment, the sound of chalk scraping over the black stone slate only briefly interrupted by Veema's orders. "Take your time, it isn't done if you do it wrong, it's only done when it's done right."
The tapping and dragging sound of chalk began to slow down considerably, punctuated by the sound of fingers wiping away marks and starting over.
'It looks like they like knife time almost as much as Shi and I do…' Veema contemplated, and went over to the dressers to start laying out the knife time clothing that was used in the darkest hours, this wouldn't take long, and they would need those clothes soon.
Sado didn't even grunt when he hit the ground, his body was harder than steel now, of that much he was sure, and Solution, true to form, gave him no recovery time. 'No time for pain, no time for pity, she will hurt you…' The monster in the shape of a beauty, who had no mercy for anyone, came at him with the knife raised up.
He rolled away, caught the hilt of her blade with his hand and yanked. She allowed him to take it and fling it aside before rolling to his feet and getting a kick straight to the face.
"So what's tearing you up today, slave? Other than me, I mean." Solution laughed and when he lunged back at her after rising, she caught his wrist, pulled, tripped him with one foot, and then came down on his back and began to twist his arm behind him.
He let out a begrudging grunt. "Let me guess, I tell you, or you snap it?" Sado asked.
Solution snapped his arm with one smooth twist, he gasped and his eyes widened with sudden pain. "Healer!" She shouted, and began to stand up. "No, slave. I snap your arm 'and' you tell me."
"Do you care?" He asked as he rose to his knees, clutching at the broken arm.
"No," she brushed her blonde locks back and looked down her nose at him, "I just find you ridiculous humans amusing, always tearing yourselves up over stupid things."
"This isn't stupid, Lady Solution." He sighed as the glow of magic swept over him and his arm began to heal.
"I'll be the judge of that, slave." Solution laughed and put her hands on her hips before looking at him expectantly.
Sado's face clouded, "Is what my mistress wants, really possible? What do you think, my lady?"
Solution shrugged. "Maybe. You don't think so?" She asked and went to pick up her knife.
Sado returned to his position while he answered, "The foreign religion is going to be an obstacle, even if she has Rasgen and Yanlim, she's set the Vex Queen against her, and the Starwatchers. The other cities aren't as dangerous individually, but success can set up failure. I know that better than anyone. I won several battles myself before the sheer weight of numbers started to take their toll."
"So you think they'll unite against her?" Solution asked him point blank when they faced one another again.
"Yes. Even with this collection of talent at her disposal, it is difficult to imagine her defeating all the cities of Mict'aratz." Sado raised his knife as the pain children filed in and took their places to watch.
"You may be right, under normal circumstances, Prince of Chains." Solution gave a malicious grin, "But they…" she gestured to the four little heads which bowed as they sat to watch, "will help even the odds, when they get just a little older… old enough to bear their own mystic hands, terror, chaos, and death, are fertile fields, and your mistress will sow the seeds of empire for some time before she harvests it. Set aside your doubts, slave, they're not your place to hold. You have one task now… help me teach them, and then, guard Diana, and your lady's interests."
Sado quietly bowed his head to acknowledge the mild rebuke.
"Your work is done?" Solution asked the black clad four.
"Yes, Teacher." Veema spoke for them all, "I checked their work, we're ready for lessons and knife time."
"Good, we have a special target tonight, this one from far, far away. One with only a handful like it in Mict'aratz. First we interrogate it, then we kill it." Solution instructed and licked her lips in excitement.
"Special?" Shi asked, "Like does it have long hair? I need some of that."
Solution spoke sweetly to the four, "I don't know about hair, but by special, I mean he comes from far, far away. I didn't expect to find anyone like him so soon, but he tried to do knife things to the child of the one who saved your mistress in the place we came from. That means they get extra red time first for not learning their lessons."
Tiny growls came from the lips of the white haired twins and their fingers tensed when their little hands closed into fists, turning their knuckles almost as white as their hair.
The unhappy looks from the Pain Children were just what Solution wanted to see, and she straightened up before facing Sado. "Now, I want you to be able to do this in the dark, but you need to practice in the light first until you get the hang of it. If you want to hurt and incapacitate your target without killing them right away, if they're one of the humanoid races, then a stab right up from below the belly button will do the trick. If you want to kill them from there, just drag the knife around, but if you want them down but survivable long enough to talk to, this is strike number one."
At a signal visible only between the two of them, Sado and Solution rushed one another, she deflected his thrust, and then hit him with a wooden blade, as he began to crumple, she hit him in the head with her knee and knocked him onto his back.
She was straddling him a moment later and had one hand at his throat, Sado began to gurgle and gritted his teeth.
"Next, you don't want them fighting back, in almost all humanoid races, shoulders are big clusters of nerves. Stab here." She commanded, and hit the shoulder with the end of the wooden knife, "Then here." She did the same with the other shoulder. "Get your knife in there, and the arms will be either useless or nearly useless. No fuss, no mess, then you can ask whatever you want and they'll be awake enough to answer you. Most won't be as tough as this one and will collapse, so the knee to the head won't be needed. But you can't be too careful when you're not a superior being like me." She got up and flipped her knife casually in her hand while Sado let his body go limp.
"Look at where the bruises are, then practice hitting there on each other, slowly at first, get the motion down perfect before you go combat speed. Remember, this is life or death for you. Even before your first assignment, if you want to continue to be yourselves, you must be without fear. No pain, no loss, no hurt can be allowed to make you weak. If you fail, then your body will still work, but your mind will be taken away and you will never exist again." Solution warned them sweetly and gave a quick snap of her fingers to show how quickly it could all be over, and the four came over to check the bruise marks on Sado, then pairing up, they began to strike at those places on one another.
Solution crossed her arms in front of her chest as the wide eyed little ones understood her warning. Blow by blow, soft and first and slowly picking up speed and power, the Pain Children worked.
Sado stood up slowly and watched the unfolding routine, and without thinking, he repeated a phrase of an instructor from his childhood. "Hit harder, get harder. You will get stronger, or you will die."
Solution raised a beautiful golden eyebrow at the hard spoken phrase, he glanced at her flatly. "Komestran saying. We may not be monsters, but get them young… and you can raise us as one."
Solution thought that over and tapped her chin, looking away from him to focus on the cold indifferent face of the little blue haired girl, "You may be right, Sado. You may be right."
The Prince of Chains inclined his head with a little smile, "Thank you… Teacher."
He did not mind in the least when her malice filled grin spread over her face, "Join us tonight, if you think you can handle it." She said with passing indifference.
"I will try not to disappoint you." Sado said sincerely, though his smile went from tiny, to a little proud.
"It will hurt if you do." Solution reminded him, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.
"I know." He answered. "I know."
AN: FIXED