Radiance

Chapter 87: The Chain That Binds.

"This is where you will sleep and other than to answer nature's call or my own you are not to leave it during the night is that understood?" Jewel Lighttail said pointing at the cot that had been procured and set up for him in the corner of her bedroom.

Actually Adam found himself rather surprised that she'd set it up in her bedroom and not in a cupboard or something but she had been rather insistent that he set the cot he'd had to carry all the way back from the giant floating marketplace right there in the corner of her surprisingly simple bed chambers.

"Yes mistress," Adam said still feeling like he was chewing rocks and having to call her that but according to her it was a customary title for someone now in her position.

"Look I do not like this as much as you most obviously do not but you should be grateful that you are still among the living, it is more preferable to be alive than dead correct?" she said.

Adam was about to answer honestly but he held his tongue and looked away from her but it was obvious that she sensed his hesitation to speak for fear of offending her and she stepped up to him and grabbed his chin and with very surprising strength she forced him to look at her.

"When I ask a question I expect an answer and I expect nothing but total honesty at all times is that understood?" she said in a rather angry voice her very bright and large eyes blazing as they bore into him.

"Yes mistress," he said trying to keep his composure as he stared right back into her eyes with a defiance of his own.

"Good now answer me," she said as she released his chin and stepped back from him.

"We have a saying among my kind, it is better to die free than live in chains, as a life in chains is not a life merely an existence," he said and she clacked her beak as she considered his words carefully.

"Indeed I see your point but to us every day you draw breath is a gift from the Eternal Flock regardless of how you spend it and you should always be grateful for it until it is your time to return to the ethereal roost, so you should be grateful that the Elders chose mercy for you Adam Hill as they could have just as easily had you walk the plank of justice," she said and he cocked his head.

"Plank of justice?" he said and she nodded.

"Our way of dealing with those who break our laws to the point that they are not deemed worthy of the life they have been given, they are bound and forced to walk the plank over the side, the final judgement is handed to the Eternal Flock, if they survive the fall then they have earned their freedom as it is deemed that the Eternal Flock judged them either innocent or worthy of remaining in this world," she said sounding almost proud of such a horrific method of execution and Adam swallowed hard imagining what horror and fear the condemned would have felt in their final moments as they plummeted back to earth.

"Well when you put it like that yes I do feel grateful to not have been condemned like that, but tell me, mistress, do any ever survive?" he asked and she nodded.

"There have been one or two but they are rare but those that do survive have their injuries treated and they are freed, we are not monsters or animals, we would not leave them to such a fate," she said.

"Is slavery a more common punishment?" he asked and she snarled at him clacking her beak sharply and making him jump as the sound was like a sharp gunshot.

"You will address me with proper respect, Adam! And it is not slavery it is indentured servitude!" she snapped and Adam settled quickly from his initial shock.

"Yes Mistress and where I am from there is no difference if you take someone's freedom from them and force them to work for you against their will they are a slave no matter what fancy title you attach to it," he said and she snarled as she scowled at him.

"There is a difference Adam, you were accused of a heinous crime and found guilty of it, we did not simply swoop down and steal you from your family to force you into servitude, you were given it as a form of leniency for the honour you displayed at your trial, but if you are so set on dying rather than serving me than I'm pretty sure I can convince the Elders to change your sentence at your request, now choose what is it to be will you serve me without further complaint or would you prefer I go to the Elders them to change your sentence on your own request?" she asked stepping up to him and getting into his face.

Adam actually found himself tempted to see if she was bluffing or not by testing her but given that he had fully expected to be executed to still be standing here alive was actually a gift even if he was bitter about the shackles that came with it, but at least if he was alive there might present a chance to escape and make it back to the Brotherhood, so really there was only one option.

He felt uncomfortable under the intensity of her stare are her large eyes searched his and he found himself looking away from her, "I will serve you......mistress," he said feeling the weight of his own voice hitting him in the soul as the words left his lips.

She gave him a smug smirk that he would very much like to wipe right off her beak with a right hook, "Thought so," she said but just as he expected her to jab at him with cutting words she went and surprised him.

"Only a fool would choose death when offered life, it is always better to live and I did not believe you to be a fool Adam Hill I am very glad you did not prove me wrong," she said flatly and somewhat haughtily but her words actually did surprise him with their veiled kindness.

"I value my independence so your tasks will be simple, you will cook my meals, clean my roost, collect my food from the market, though I suppose it will be our food now as I am being given a further allowance for your food as well, you will also make my nest in the mornings and draw my bath in the evenings, you will also clean my weapons as well as armour, these are the standard tasks that I will expect you to do every day, there will be other things that I will ask of you when the need arises is that understood?" she said.

"Yes mistress," he said still feeling somewhat depressed at the notion of this but he was simply trying to put a military spin on things to lift his spirits, sometimes the military could feel a little like slavery in that you got very little choice on where you went or what you did but at least with that you had the option to join, to begin with, or to leave if you were that opposed to the life you had chosen, where his fate was sealed.

"As my servant and attendant I expect you to keep an excellent degree of hygiene as you represent me, so you will be dressed properly, well groomed and bathed at all times, I expect you to bathe every single day understood? she asked and he nodded, at least that was no different to the Brotherhood they asked the very same of every brother and sister.

"Yes mistress," he said.

"Good, if you give me no cause to punish you, Adam you will find me to be both fair and just, I understand that this is not the way you envisioned things turning out and nor did I if I am honest so we must both make the best of this if I am truly honest I never wished to be the holder of a servant but I do not hold that against you as you had no real choice in the matter but if you give me no reason to make your life hard then I will not, I will treat you with fairness and dignity as I believe that every living being should at the very least be allowed those things regardless of the situation they are in, but if you push me you will find that I can dish out discipline with the best of them, there is a reason fledgling soldiers both fear and respect me, understood?" she said and once again he nodded.

"Yes mistress," he said while also wondering to himself what her form of punishment may come in?

"First we must dress you appropriately as I won't have my servant looking like a ruffled feather," she said gesturing to his somewhat torn fatigues which had obviously been damaged when he was forcibly removed from his armour.

"Umm I have no other clothes mistress I wasn't exactly packed for a lengthy stay in the field," he said gesturing to himself.

"Obviously, well we will change that right now follow me," she said and with that, she turned on her talons making them click sharply on the metal floor and he flared her tail making it shish and fan before folding back in and tuck up against her thin but strong looking legs.

Unfortunately, this movement also drew Adam's eyes to both her legs and her rear end allowing him to see the very surprising feminine shape of both her hips and her rear which was hidden below her curved hip armour which ran down onto her large thighs.

She was dressed in a mixture of leather and metal with what appeared to be silk under it against her feathers, he tried to tear his eyes off her rear end but the way her tail seemed to bob and wag as she walked made it incredibly difficult and even trying to force himself remember that she was not human did not seem to work but as he found a thought set which did manage it in imagining her anger and the punishment that would come with it he forced his eyes upwards only to discover that it was too late, she was looking right at him and she did not look happy.

"What the hell are you looking at!?" she demanded Immediately stomping right up to him making her claws clack loudly on the metal floor.

His mind began to race as he found himself staring into her angry eyes and he began to try and think of an excuse that might placate her ire but then her words swam into his mind that she demanded nothing but pure honesty from her servant and he began to wonder if this was a test to see if he would be honest with her.

"I-I was looking at your tail," he said and she instantly cocked her head to look at him.

"Why?" she demanded.

"Because it's surprisingly pretty, I've never been this close to a sentient non-human before, the closest thing I've seen are super mutants and ghouls and they most definitely do not look like you," he said.

She seemed to consider his words carefully before making her response, "Better or worse?" she asked.

"Umm better definitely better I do not know if you have either seen a Ghoul or a Super Mutant before but they are definitely not what I would consider in the realm of attractive," he said suddenly feeling like he had bitten his own tongue.

Her eyes widened before narrowing dangerously, "Are you saying that you think I am attractive?" she snarled but again she had asked for honesty.

"Well you are most certainly not ugly that's for sure, the rest is simply confusing," he said honestly.

She snarled at his less-than-concise response but she had ordered him to be honest and that's kinda how he honestly felt, she was not ugly which was something that scared him more than if she had been truly horrific.

She made a humph noise and turned on her heels flacking her talons as she did, "You passed the test my servant, a lesser man would have lied to me in order to try and escape my wrath, but you spoke honestly regardless of facing my wrath because I ordered you too, this is good because not only will I not punish you for this indiscretions as you followed my orders to the letter but I will commend your bravery, you faced down possible punishment and took on the risk to follow my orders, this is the mark of a good soldier and this to me weighs in more to what you did which earned you this reprieve from death in the first place, you place your honour above the consequences, I do wish more of your species could take a note from you," she said.

"Umm thank you, mistress," he said feeling a wash of relief.

"That having been said and while I do believe it would be both dishonourable and impossible to tell you not to look as to do so would be to deny you your natural male instincts which are not right and given that I am a fine example of my species and I have received many propositions form many eligible males, indeed why would you not look but do not get any ideas human, or you will find I am very much not apposed to removing appendages as a punishment," she said giving him a rather dark smile as she removed a very nasty looking blade from the scabbard that was attached to her chest rig making him nod his head very rapidly indeed.

"Y-Yes mistress," he stammered and she nodded approvingly putting her weapon away.

"Glad we understand each other, now come along we are wasting daylight," she said heading for the door causing him to have to stride out to catch up.

As Adam walked through the floating city he might not have been wearing actual chains but given the constant tingling from the tattoos etched on him he sure felt chains pulling on him, especially when he kept catching all of the looks that were being shot his way, though while it was bad enough getting the angry and somewhat disgusted looks it was the parents stepping in front of their curious children to protect them from him that hurt the most, like what did they expect him to do run up and snatch them away?

So by the time they reached the tailor's Adam was actually feeling quite depressed with his situation.

Jewel knocked on the door before ushering him inside where he found two female peacocks standing watching the pair, around them sat shelves upon shelves that contained rolls of everything from cloth to leather to fine silk.

"Greetings Zelda and Meesha," Jewel said giving a polite bow that Adam mirrored as he saw her do it.

"Greetings honoured Featherguard what can we do for you today, are you in need of new armour or perhaps a nice set of talon covers?" one of the peacocks said.

"I am here today to purchase clothing for my servant I will need a full week's worth of everything from daily wear to underwear and sleepwear please," Jewel said gesturing to Adam who tried to put on his best smile for them he really didn't want to intimidate the pair as they had done him no wrong and he really didn't want them either simply hating him for existing or intimidating them.

The brightly coloured pair fluffed their feathers and looked at him curiously, they had slightly jerky movements as they moved their heads around to regard him closely, eventually feeling safe enough the pair came out from behind their wooden desk and cautiously approached him.

"Do not fear, he will not harm you in any way, believe it or not, my servant Adam here is a very honourable being as unbelievable as it is given what we have seen his kind do up until now the fact that he is standing here is proof of how much he impressed the Elders," Jewel said surprisingly proudly.

The sisters chattered and chittered in their own language but nodded their agreement and Adam found it odd that everyone here seemed to understand English, he began to wonder if the Elders had made it a requirement that they all learn it to better understand their enemy or something along those lines.

As he was thinking about this the pair came around the desk properly and flanked him both circling and bobbing their heads up and down on their long slender necks as they seemingly appraised him as if working out where the best place to begin would be.

Suddenly they both grabbed an arm each and yanked them up so they could begin running tape measures down them, their grip was surprisingly strong and once again Adam found himself surprised by not only how swift and fluid their movements were but how physically strong they were.

He guessed this played into the flight muscles they would need to lift their whole bodies into the air given that they were a fair bit larger than their distant cousins would be, so while he figured that their bones would probably be either hollow or more likely made from a form of more flexible material that mimicked something like carbon fibre they would not be as dense as human bones making them susceptible to breakage under force.

The pair chittered along shouting what he assumed were numbers to one another as they worked as while one talked the other wrote down what appeared to be a series of minute scratches that kinda reminded him of either Chinese or Japanese katakana.

They were swiftly done with his arms, shoulders and neck and then they moved onto his torso pulling both his arms up and wrapping the tape around his chest, they both seemed to be impressed with the numbers by the excitable chittering going on as while one of them shouted out the numbers the other came around to look as if she didn't believe what she was being told.

Next was into his stomach followed by his hips and finally his legs, they started on the outside first measuring down to his feet before staring in puzzlement at his shoes, "Take these off please we need an accurate measurement of your feet," one of the pair said.

Adam glanced at Jewel and she nodded her consent and silently he reached down and unlaced his boots, also silently cursing in his mind that he was so rapidly becoming used to this that he was now looking for permission to take his fucking shoes off.

Once they were removed the sister with blue feathers grabbed his foot and lifted it, she seemed to be analysing the shape while chittering away to her sister who looked just as puzzled as she did.

"She's asking where your talons are and if they are retractable or not," Jewel said as she noticed Adam watching them in confusion.

"Humans don't have talons, just nails and they aren't exactly a weapon," he said and now even Jewel cocked her head as she looked at his feet also.

"How do you use them to grip then?" she asked.

"Humans don't, we're evolved from primates who would do such things but we developed the ability to run long distances and for that stability and spread are more important, so long flat and wide feet with no grip," he said wiggling his toes as if it was going to somehow prove his point.

As he was doing this he'd noticed that Jewel seemed to have locked her leg joints again and was resting her weight on them, he figured the joints in her legs must be incredibly strong to allow her to simply put her entire weight upon them like that with no balancing or shock absorption.

He only noticed this because she released them and it reminded him of the motion power armour did when the joints unlocked and a user began to move in it as if someone was sleeping standing up in it or had just entered the suit.

"No wings, no talons, no beak, no plumage, you humans really are a strange species," Jewel said and Adam shrugged.

"No arguments here mistress," he said and she eyed him curiously obviously unsure if he was being sarcastic or not.

Once they'd finished with his feet they measured his inner and outer legs as well as his thigh and calf width, once that was done they chittered to one another and seemed to be arguing about something.

The sister with the blue feathers grabbed his hand and turned it over pointing at the back of it and then turning it over and pointing at the palm as if to make her point, the green-feathered one moved in close and looked at it before nodding her head as if conceding the point.

"Strip," the blue-feathered one said and Adam's heart lurched.

"Excuse me?" he exclaimed.

"Is my English not clear to you? Take your clothes off we need to see your skin in order to figure out what materials would be best suited to it," the blue-feathered sister said and Adam looked at Jewel who while obviously surprised still nodded her head.

Adam was seriously not happy about this turn of affairs but it wasn't like he was in a position to really argue with her, so he did as he was told, starting with his jacked and shit he removed the pair revealing his toned and well-built torso.

Adam was not exactly embarrassed by his physique as a Knight in the Brotherhood of Steel he took his physical fitness very seriously so he worked out pretty much every single day when he was not on duty, so he was incredibly well built in that department.