Awareness came in pieces.
First, there was simply the sense of self. She had emerged from the blackness. Her heart beat strongly in her chest. She was not dead and not in any real discomfort, so she took a moment to relish that and focused on breathing in the damp air, still chilled despite the fact the flicker of torches and lamps teased her eyelids. She could smell the sea, so she knew she was still near where she started on the south side of the city.
Next came the acute awareness of her body as a whole. She was fully nude, her nipples firm in the chill. Her arms were over her head in a 'v,' cuffed to heavy chains that were anchored firmly to the ceiling. She was going nowhere until whoever it was decided to let her go. Then there was the collar around her neck. It felt like a thin metal and fit snugly, but not so that it threatened to impede breathing. The fear of the unknown led her to think of the sensation as fingers at her throat.
Then came memory. She was in the markets in the south quarter of the city shopping for some odds and ends for the house. Good deals could be had and Mistress had an affection for the handmade quilts from the merchants there. The now-captive had arranged for delivery of several and moved on to the rest of her list when someone brushed her. She turned to her left to see one of the urchins that claimed that part of the city. She didn't remember his face specifically, but, to be fair, she hardly looked. He was as unkempt, threadbare, and dirty as too many in the quarter. He'd brushed her hand so quickly and lightly that, if not for where she found herself now, she probably would never have paid it any mind. Not long after that came the blackness.
Feeling stronger and knowing that she had no hope of getting anywhere without knowing her surroundings, she opened her eyes, which was easier than she thought it would be. She'd expected the lids to be somewhat more leaden given how groggy she felt in those first moments.
She looked around the room. It was indeed well lit, showing her the limestone that surrounded her, but sparsely furnished. All that she could see was a table that had her shoes paired next to her clothes that were neatly folded. Sitting on that table with his hands on his knees and a grin on his face was someone she knew of, but little more. {Deres} "Where am I?"
"Where I need you to be," he told her. "I do commend you though, you seem very bright, Cassea. You surveyed yourself and your surroundings before opening your eyes and revealing yourself that way. Many other women would have simply started screaming and so would more men than would dare admit it."
She looked him over. From broad chest to powerful limbs, he didn't need height to be imposing, but he carried it casually even now. She noted that they even looked similar, both with dark hair and blue eyes. At first glance they could be related, but the idea that she could be mistaken for the kin of some wretch from the south quarter was upsetting no end. "What good would screaming do?"
"Absolutely none. You could scream until your voice were gone and you could scream with people right outside the door and no one would hear you at all."
She clearly puzzled over his last words, but said nothing more.
"I commend you too in not being particularly bothered by the nudity and the chaining and all that."
Cassea sounded genuinely indifferent, "It's done. Begging for my clothes would be as foolish and pointless as screaming or begging you to let me go. Since it is done, you may as well tell me what you think."
"You should be proud of every inch, honestly. No one would expect a body so...athletic under those clothes. Lovely thighs, toned belly, and I could probably bounce a coin off that backside. I'm not sure how you run a house and have the time to maintain it."
"Enjoy looking. It'll just be another thing you pay for."
He hopped off the table, standing before her, and sounding almost bored with what was coming, but willing to acquiesce to the demands of the situation. "This is the part where you tell me people will be looking for you. My answer to that is, your shopping errands are being completed while we're here together, and the goods will be delivered. So, to anyone that might want to look for you, it will look like you did your job and then decided to spend the rest of our time together on whatever leisure activities you have, like keeping that body firm, for example."
He gave her an impish grin, "By the time anyone is *really* worried enough to start looking for you, there won't be anything to worry about because you'll be back running the house and no one will be the wiser."
She snorted, taking a moment to imagine herself biting through the soft tissue of his throat. "Where you think I'll tell exactly no one of my kidnapping and rape at the hands of General Jaye's pet?"
He put both hands to his heart as though mortally wounded, "I've been called far worse than that, both before I left Erette and since I've returned. You don't even get points for effort. But, to put your mind at ease, no, you won't tell anyone what has happened here. You won't even want to."
She didn't believe it for a second, "Of course I won't," she said as though agreeing with the crazy person with a weapon in order to avoid a fight.
He touched her cheek just so see her reaction and was pleased she didn't flinch. This woman was strong-willed and, in that way, not unlike his beloved Neral. He liked that a lot, not for the least of reasons being that what would happen later would be all the sweeter for it. {All things in their own time}, he thought. "You know who I am?"
She jerked in annoyance, the chains rattling in response, "As if you don't know you have been the talk of the Houses for months." She took on a more formal tone, as a crier might if reading off his accomplishments, "Deres Valtise, pauper and orphan of the south quarter who ran away to find his fortune and his name, returns after a life who-knows-where to tend the sick and wounded. Almost immediately, he weds so far above his class that, if the general had any self-respect, she wouldn't have him lick her boots clean, much less warm her bed."
He smiled, "It has such a nice rhythm and cadence when you say it that way. Do you write poetry?"
That he was seemingly imperturbable made the whole situation that much more difficult, but perhaps something else could reach him, "You've started a war, you know. In taking me for even a minute you've invited my master's House to war with yours. Do you really think you, in your position, a position that entirely depends on *her* position, can afford such a thing?"
He sighed at this well-trodden bit. "Let me guess, if I let you go, you will speak to no one of it and it will be as though none of it happened?"
"Pfft...you will pay me well and regularly for my silence because that will be cheaper in treasure and less costly in blood than any conflict and it's certainly less a burden on you than your House's banishment."
He laughed a belly laugh that took his breath away as it echoed through the room, Deres pacing as he worked it out. "Oh, I really do like you, girl. You are where you are and I am where I am and you still have the iron in your spine to think that I'm just going to pay you to let you go."
"What choice do you have?"
