Chapter 14 : Early Afternoon
"...Pariahs?" questioned Kianna "What, what do you mean!?"
"I mean that every other living dark elf is going to be very unhappy with you two" said Anton as he folded his arms over his chest and grinned at their confusion "And they're all going to be absolutely livid with me!"
Both of the dark elves looked at each other before looking back at him.
"Why!?" they both exclaimed in unison.
"Because this has never happened before" said Anton as he waved his pointed finger back and forth between them "At least not as far as I know."
"...What's never happened before?" asked Fiona as she lowered her ears in uncertainty "What the Hell are you talking about!?"
"I'm talking about dark elves becoming actual slaves" said Anton "As far as I know you two are the first of your kind to ever be truly enslaved. ...So I guess in a way congratulations are in order. You'll both be in the history books now"
Both of the dark elves remained still for a moment as they stared at him.
"What!?" they both exclaimed in unison.
"Are you serious!?" cried Fiona as she planted her hands on the sides of her head.
"How is that possible!?" questioned Kianna "How can this have never happened before!?"
"Well, you see, dark elves have a naturally ingrained immunity to all binding spells and curses. This was something that was designed into them when they were originally created" explained Anton "And because of this immunity it has always been believed that it was completely impossible to actually enslave a dark elf. But we just proved that this isn't true, and that there is at least one way to do it"
"How!?" cried the dark elves in unison.
"...Hm, yeah. I think it's only fair that you two understand exactly what's happened here, so I'll explain it as best I can" said Anton as he looked back and forth between them "Fiona, you recognized that these collars were different right away, didn't you?"
"Yeah!" nodded Fiona.
"How are they different?" asked Anton.
"They've got glowing gems on them" mumbled Fiona as she felt the collar around her neck "And they kinda look different..."
"You know what normal binding collars look like?" asked Anton.
"Yeah. They don't all look the same but these are really different looking" explained Fiona.
"And how exactly do you know what normal collars look like?" asked Anton.
"I, sometimes like to look at pictures online..." admitted Fiona in a slightly embarrassed tone "...Of slave girls, that are for sale..."
"Ah, I see, fair enough" nodded Anton "So you realize the gemstones on these collars are not typical? And that normal collars don't have them?"
"Yes" said Fiona.
"Do you recognize what they are?" asked Anton.
"...No" said Fiona as she glanced at the jewels on her sister's collar.
"Well, they're actually the secret to how these collars can work on you two" said Anton as he looked from Fiona's jewel to Kianna's "The large center ones are called "Blood Gems" and your own blood is one of the ingredients that they're made out of"
The dark elves eyes widened as they both looked at each others jewels.
"My blood!" whispered Kianna as she reached up and touched her blood gem.
"Yes, when I knocked you both out on the first night that you brought me here. I took a sample of blood from each of you. Then I mixed it with my own, added some raw silica and combined the mixture in a mana vortex to create these gems. They act as both a catalyst and a relay for the curses that bind you to me. The two smaller gems are buffers that keep your auras from effecting the blood gems"
"Our auras?" said Kianna as she looked at her sister's green colored jewels "Is that why they turned green?"
"...They're not green!? They're pink!?" said Fiona as she narrowed her eyes at Kianna "Right?"
"No, they're green?" said Kianna.
"Their colors are based on your individual auras" chuckled Anton "Fiona's aura is apparently green while Kianna's is pink"
"My gems are pink!?" exclaimed Kianna as she tilted her head down in a failed attempt to see her own collar "Really!?"
"Yeah, the chain around your collar was pink too" said Fiona "But now it's black again"
"Same with yours, except it was green" said Kianna as she leaned in closer to her sister and gazed at her collar "Did you know that your aura was green?"
"No" said Fiona as she leaned away from Kianna's prying eyes "How would I even know that!?"
"If you had ever made any light chains or other items using your aura you would have known it was green" explained Anton as he raised his hand.
As the dark elves watched, a tiny ball of orange light appeared above Anton's palm and began to grow oblong in shape until taking the form of a semi-transparent handle. As Anton took hold of the glowing orange handle it became solid, lengthened again and became a thin riding crop style of whip.
Fiona's eyes widened as Anton flicked the triangle shaped leather flap at the end of the whip under her chin and forced her to lift her head and look into his eyes.
"I'll give you one chance to guess what color my aura is" he said as he gave her a mocking grin "I hope for your sake your not colorblind!"
"...It's, it's orange!" declared the dark elf "Right!?"
"Hm, lucky guess" mumbled Anton in a playful tone as he let the whip fall from his hand. The thin riding crop immediately began to melt away into nothing as soon as it lost it's contact with him.
"Anyways, getting back to the point" said Anton as he leaned back in his chair "A dark elf's immunity to bindings isn't limited to just the bindings curses in the dominion class of magic. They're also immune to demonic binding curses as well as familiar contracts. In essence, they just can't be bound at all. It's an ingrained natural immunity that they all carry, including you two. You girls may very well be the worst examples of dark elves that I've ever seen. But you're still dark elves nonetheless"
Fiona grimaced at the insult while Kianna merely continued to listen intently.
"This immunity only flows one way though. A dark elf may not be able to be bound to another person but another person can be bound to a dark elf" explained Anton "And as we've talked about already, being bound to a dark elf is so naturally easy that any person with a submissive enough nature could become bound to one by being influenced by their auras, listening to them speak or if submissive enough, simply being near them. In other words a dark elf doesn't necessarily even need a anchored curse to enslave someone, they can do it naturally. This is what they are, they're a natural "ruling class" species that was built to control others. And this immunity was put in place so that no one could ever turn the tables and take control of them. This is another factor that sets the dark elves apart from most of the other races and makes them so potentially dangerous. Since they have this immunity, the threat of being enslaved doesn't exist for them. And as such they don't face the same consequences, and they don't have the same incentives to play nice and follow the rules in the same way most other people do. This is why so many of them are more prone to engage in criminal activities. ...And it can actually be pretty hard for them to keep themselves from being arrogant about this"
"Well yeah! It's not like that doesn't makes sense!" mumbled Fiona as she nodded thoughtfully.
"...Wait, hold on!" exclaimed Kianna as she tilted her head and cocked one of her ears in curiosity "What would happen if a dark elf wanted to be enslaved though? Couldn't she just let the binding spells work on her?"
"No, that wouldn't work" said Anton as he shook his head "Your immunity isn't based from a skill or ability that you can control. It's a natural part of you, and you can't just turn it off"
"So how did you do it then!? Or are we even really enslaved!? Or are you just saying we are!? Because I think that you definitely fucked with me!" exclaimed Fiona as she wrapped her arms around herself and rubbed her shoulders "But I sure as Hell don't feel like I'm your slave!"
"Oh, you definitely are. If you weren't then you could take that collar off" explained Anton "I'm not sure just how obedient you've become, if at all. It's possible, very unlikely, but possible that you could disobey my commands. Though even if you could that wouldn't change whether or not you're enslaved to me. It would just give me a reason to discipline you"
Fiona grimaced angrily while Kianna's face became thoughtful.
"As for how. Well. We have to go back to the blood gems for that" explained Anton "They really are the catalyst behind everything"
The dark elves quickly glanced at each others gems before looking back at Anton.
"You see, as I explained before, the dark elves immunity only flows one way. They can't become bound to another but another can be bound to them. And this is what these collars are designed to exploit" explained Anton "What do you two know about familiars?"
"Familiars?" repeated Kianna "They're like a pet animal that's been enslaved, right?"
"In most cases that description would be pretty accurate. The most commonly seen familiars are usually animals that have been bound to an individual. It is entirely possible to turn a person into a familiar as well but this is rarely seen as a familiar must fully agree to be bound to it's owner. You can not just force someone to become a familiar, the binding can only be done if both parties are willing. Now, people that practice high level magic will generally have at least one familiar but its possible for someone to have dozens of them at once. These familiars can be used as assistants, servants and even guinea pigs for their owners during their spell crafting" explained Anton "But their main reason for being kept is to give the practitioner a second source of mana that they can tap into to preform very high level mana heavy spells. So essentially the familiars act as a living, backup mana battery"
The dark elves once again had become still as they listened to what was being told to them.
