. 09

Author's notes:

This is the continuation of A Long Time from Home II and if you haven't read that, I advise you to do so. The series is self-edited, so any mistakes are mine, though I now have a proofreader, that can catch missing words ect. Thanks to Jessejames932006 for doing that.

This chapter is darker than usual, the combat is bloodier, the dark magic more horrifying. If that is not for you, just skip this chapter and wait for the next.

As you can see from the 'Flashback' part, this chapter takes place in the ancient past. While I have done a lot of research for that, there might be small errors here and there. If you think you found such an error in the story, please double check to be sure that you're correct and then PM me about it, so I can fix it. :)

Due to its length, I placed ALTFH under the 'Novels and Novellas' section, but as you can see, ALTFH II is placed in the 'Sci-fi and Fantasy' section, which fits it better due to the elements of magic that's in it. At least in my opinion :)

Have fun and while you're at it, please rate the chapter and leave a comment :)

About timing on uploads

Trust me, when I say that I do the best I can to upload as frequently as I can. Unfortunately, my RL is pretty hectic at the moment, and as this is a hobby and not a job, it can take a while from time to time.

About the notation:

Mental communication is denoted by a < and ends with a >, so a mental communication will look like this: "< Who are you? >"

Some warnings

:

This is erotic action adventure, meaning that there will be both sex and violence, but I don't mix the two.

This story is posted on the Literotica website and the author does not give permission for it to be reposted or reprinted anywhere else without consent.

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9 -- Flashback: Once upon a time in Susen

The city of Susen, Haltamti (Susa, Elam, present day Southern Iran), 1202 BC

A day at the market

Despite it being early in the day, the slave market was abuzz with people and the air was thick with voices and the mingling aromas of spices and dust.

The royal sellers had already gathered, clustering in small knots with their human wares on display. Buyers, some loud and animated, others reserved and watchful, meandered between the groups, their eyes inspecting the goods as they walked from one group to another.

Tutu and I were among those buyers, as we walked through the crowds, looking for a suitable slave or two for the house. Preferably one who could cook and another who could clean, since cleaning the rooms used by Neferure and the patients often took a while.

Unfortunately for Merit and Neferure (Or Kherta, as she was called here) king Kidin-Hutran had decided to start the auction of the slaves on a day where they were both busy. Merit with her job as a midwife for yet another noble family and Neferure with healing people, leaving Tutu and I to go see if we could make a good deal.

Not that I minded. Like her sister Merit, Tutu was both strikingly beautiful and sharp-witted, and in general good company.

"What are we looking for, Zabu?" she asked, her tone casual but her eyes sharp as she scanned the market. "I assume two women, but Babylonian or foreign?"

"As long as they can cook and clean, and they don't hurt the eye to look at, I have no preference one way or the other." I told her with a slight smile. "The only real concern with foreigners is the language barrier, but if they speak Hittite, Akkadian, or any of the major tongues, it won't be an issue."

She nodded thoughtfully, her gaze drifting over the sellers and their slaves. Without hesitation, she began weaving through the groups, her demeanor calm but purposeful. I followed closely, letting her take the lead. Tutu was better at bartering than I, so I left it to the expert, while looking around.

Most of the people for sale were clearly of Babylonian origins, as they were short, dark-haired and with the brown eyes and olive tan typical of people from this area. In fact, there was little difference between the slaves and those looking to buy them, but that was the standard for the human world.

A large group of people caught my eye, as they surrounded a seller and the slaves offered for sale, while seemingly talking excitedly among themselves. I caught glimpses of vibrant colours and striking features that stood out even from a distance.

"Tutu," I said, gesturing toward the cluster. "Let's see what the fuss is about."

She flashed me a sly smile, always intrigued by the unusual, and we made our way through the crowd.

Going through the crowd was almost impossible, but as I was taller than most other people here, it enabled me to look at the slaves over their heads and the sight left me slightly stunned.

The slaves on display were nothing short of extraordinary. A white-haired woman with piercing blue eyes stood at the center, her striking resemblance to the Baylon people unmistakable. If she didn't have Baylon blood in her veins, I would have been astonished. Beside her was a smaller woman, her straight black hair falling like silk over shoulders that framed slanted eyes, marking her as a Lescarian. Another had tightly curled black hair and a lighter complexion, resembling a Hittite. Each slave was distinct, representing far-flung corners of the known world, with different shades of skin, hair- and eye-colours.

"Tutu," I murmured, low enough to avoid drawing attention, "what am I looking at here?"

"I'm not sure," she replied, her voice edged with irritation as she struggled to see through the throng. "I can't see them, but according to the people surrounding us, these are pleasure slaves from one of the places the king raided." She looked up at me with a grimace. "And they're very costly."

"Exotic goods always are." I said with a snort.

In all likelihood, they weren't even the most expensive of the slaves from Kidin-Hutran's raid, as Hallutush had told me the nobles of the city had held an auction the day before yesterday, where at least some of the slaves had been sold, though those had mostly been highly educated slaves, like scribes or land administrators that merchants and common people had little use for.

Pleasure slaves were a special case that was rarely needed, as men of the merchant class were allowed to have up to four wives, if he could provide them with a home to live in, as well as food and everything else needed to live a good life.

In the lower classes, husbands were allowed to buy a female slave in order to produce an heir if his wife was infertile. However, the slave was chosen by

the wife

and never gained the status of a second wife, not even if the first wife died.

This system left the nobles as the only ones to have pleasure slaves, and they had clearly not bought these, making me wonder what the pleasure slaves were doing here, as they would be very difficult to sell. At least to the locals, making the most likely buyers the foreign merchants that frequented the market here.

Unfortunately for the royal sellers, they had missed their window of opportunity. The trade winds had begun and most of the foreign merchants were gone from the city. So, if the pleasure slaves weren't sold now, they would have to be fed and sheltered for six or seven months, before the merchants returned. The exception to that was if they were sold to those merchants that travelled by land, but it was considerably easier to transport slaves by ship than over land, and land travelling merchants rarely bought expensive slaves.

I returned my eyes to the Baylon-looking woman, studying her intensely, comparing her in my head to the Baylon women from my past. Then I nodded slowly. Whatever she was, she wasn't a pure-blood Baylon that had been caught here when Baylon disappeared, but a half-blood of some kind, the prominence of her Baylon-blood making the other half of her ancestry difficult to determine.

"Oh wow!" Breathed Tutu as the crowd parted just enough for her to see the tall white-haired woman. Then she snapped her head around to look at me. "That must be one of your people, Master!"

"Close enough." I admitted. "She's a half-blood, I think."

"Buy her." Tutu suggested immediately, her eyes gleaming with excitement.

I shook my head. "She's a pleasure slave. I doubt she knows how to cook or clean without training."

"Maybe," Tutu conceded, "but she had to be something before that... unless she was born and raised a slave."

"Good point." I admitted. "Let's see if we can get close enough to ask her."

Getting through the crowd took some time, but it was made easier by people coming and leaving, and from the snippets of conversation I caught, most people seemed to be there out of curiosity, and not the serious buyers the Royal sellers were hoping for.

My suspicion that the pleasure slaves were here for the foreign merchants was fortified when we came nearer to the seller, who was calling out the skills of the slaves in Akkadian for all to hear but judging from the expression on the people hearing it, he was ignored by anyone but me.

According to the Royal seller, all the women were long-time slaves, trained to play music, sing, dance and everything else demanded of a pleasure slave, and he looked very surprised when Tutu cut him off with a short, "Yes, but can they cook and clean?", causing the rest of the gathered crowd to break out in laughter.

Interestingly, there was a shadow of a smile on some of the slaves as well, indicating they did indeed speak Akkadian, though the majority of them just looked resigned to their fate.

The seller assured her the slaves could indeed cook and clean, but Tutu had gone into full buyer mode, asking why she should pay triple the price for a normal household slave, when the only thing they could be used for by normal people were household chores, as the law forbade anything else.

Despite being partly misleading, the question was enough to cause several people to look angry and the royal sellers to look slightly nervous, and when I quietly inquired about the price a moment later, they turned out to be somewhat less expensive than my initial impression had led me to believe. At forty shekels per slave, they were more like twice as expensive as normal household slaves, instead of triple or four times the price.

Granted, they weren't inexpensive in any sense of the word, as a normal servant got around twelve shekels a year, but they were well within what I could afford. Especially since the profit from the Kumetian cotton and linen I had secured a month ago would likely earn me a lot of profit once I got around to selling it, but I wasn't in a hurry to do that. The war in Kumet had severely limited the amount of Kumetian cotton reaching Susen and consequently the price on Kumetian cotton was steadily rising. I also had some Phoenician wine, Babylonian wool and glass ingots from Bharat in the warehouse, just waiting for me to find the right buyer. However, in my experience the 'right buyer' usually didn't show up before the crafters and merchants had used their present stock, which usually didn't happen until three or four months from now, so I would just have to be patient.

"Tutu!" I called in Kumetian and waited until I had her attention. "Which one, aside from the one we have already talked about?"

She walked closer to me, so she didn't have to shout over the noise from the crowd. "The one with the funny eyes, master." She nodded in the direction of what I thought was a Lescarian.

"See if you can get them for a reasonable price then." I told her and walked over to the slaves. Since they were standing right next to each other, I simply asked. "Can you clean and cook?" in Akkadian.

"Yes, master." The Lescarian answered immediately, while the other looked at me with wide eyes, and took me totally by surprise by stammering, "Yes, Inquisitor." in fluent Baylon.

Switching to Baylon, I asked. "Have we met somewhere? You obviously know who I am, but I don't remember you."

She nodded eagerly. "Yes, but I was only a child when you rescued my family from Sybaris, along with a one-armed mage."

I nodded slowly. When Baylon had started the return to its home dimension, all the humans, slaves and servants alike, had been transported off the Island and I guessed it was inevitable that I would meet one of them sooner or later. That it was a person I had met before was unlikely, but not impossible.

Switching to Kumetian, I told Tutu to start negotiating and looked at the white-haired woman as I switched back to Baylon again. "What's your Baylon name?"

"Cassia Lucius," she replied, her voice tinged with hope.

Looking at the Lescarian woman I asked her name as well, but in Akkadian this time.

"Agusaya." She replied, her smile faint but genuine, giving me an Akkadian name instead of the Lescarian name I had been expecting. The name meant 'the whirling dancer', which was a fitting name for a pleasure slave, whose main job was dancing, singing and in general making sure her master had a good time.

"Thank you. I'm known as Zabu here." I told both of them and turned my attention back to Tutu, who had engaged in a fierce bartering with the royal seller, and from the look on his face, Tutu was getting the best of the exchange. Eventually, she turned to me with a triumphant grin. "We have an agreement."

"Good." I walked over to her. "The price?"

Tutu smiled slightly as she said. "Thirty-two shekels for one, a

susi

(sixty) for two."

With sheer force of will, I managed not to look surprised. The price for a normal slave was around twenty shekels and as far as I understood from the crowd, the asking price for each one of these slaves had started at sixty, making it a very good deal. Or at least it would have, if I had intended to sell those slaves elsewhere, which I didn't.

That the price was a

susi

, or sixty shekels, just made payment easier. Since they used a number system based on that number, they had also made a special silver ingot for sixty shekels. Not that they were the only ones, as the Phoenicians used it as well, though they called it a

Mina

.

With a nod, I accepted the clay tablet the royal seller handed me and made my marks in the wet clay, before handing him a susi from my pouch. He marked the deal as paid, and then I was the owner of two slaves... again.

I introduced them to Tutu and then asked. "Are you hungry?"

Then exchanged glances before Cassia Lucius said, "Yes... and thirsty. It's very hot here."

"Yes, it is. Follow me." I said, leading them away from the bustling chaos of the market.

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Compared to the blazing hot streets, the covered rooftop of Arwia's eatery felt like a cool oasis. The gentle shade offered a reprieve from the relentless heat as the four of us settled at a low wooden table. Cassia and Agusaya gazed in wide-eyed wonder as platters of food were carried out and set before us. The aroma of roasted lamb and freshly baked bread mingled with the faint scent of jasmine drifting in on the breeze.

"We eat at the same table as you?" Cassia asked hesitantly, her delicate features lit with disbelief.

"Yes," I affirmed with a firm nod. "As a general principle, I don't like slavery. So, here's the deal: you'll serve as slaves for three years, but I will treat you as servants. After that, you'll be free and formally hired as regular servants."

Their astonished expressions left them momentarily speechless. Agusaya's lips parted, but no words came. Beside her, Cassia blinked rapidly, trying to process what I'd said.

"I know how you feel," Tutu said, tossing her thick, dark curls over one shoulder. "I didn't believe it at first either... but it's true."

Agusaya turned to Tutu, her almond-shaped eyes widening in surprise. "You were a slave once?"

Tutu nodded, her expression thoughtful. "Yes, about six or seven years ago. And before you ask, I have no desire to go back to Alashiya. I have more freedom and a better life with Zabu here, than the women have back on Alashiya where I come from."

Deciding to leave Tutu to handle their questions, I spotted a familiar face seated across the rooftop. "You'll have to excuse me," I said, rising from my seat. "I see someone I need to talk to."

Tutu gave me an approving nod, already engaging the two women in conversation as I made my way toward Murdus, the ever-smiling merchant whose joviality rarely hid his calculating mind.

"Hello Murdus." I greeted him. "It's been a while."

He smiled his usual big smile, but for some reason it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Yes, it has. Have a seat. Since you're here anyway, I have something I need to talk with you about."

Returning the smile, I sat down and lowered my voice. "I guess that something involves your nephew Hallutush and Merit the Midwife."

Murdus let out a sigh, his fingers combing through his beard. "Yes. Is it true she's as enamoured with him as he is with her?"

Thinking it over for a moment, I said. "I think so. I guess that is ... a complication for the family?"

Murdus's chuckle was dry and humourless. "A complication, indeed. The family expects Hallutush to marry a noblewoman." His lips parted in a little smile. "A princess from somewhere to be exact, but Hallutush is a stubborn young man and he has his eyes set on Merit. Granted, she is a lovely woman with an excellent education, but she's not a noble and as a distant member of the Royal family, Hallutush needs a noble as his first wife."

I nodded slowly, considering the conundrum. It wasn't entirely surprising Hallutush had set his sights on Merit. She was beautiful, intelligent and carried herself with a quiet dignity, but the family's concerns were valid. A noble family's influence could wane significantly if a member married beneath their station.

Turning the problem in my head, I hid a smile as the obvious solution presented itself. "Well, you might be able to let Hallutush drink his wine and keep it too. As far as I remember, most nobles make a marriage contract, yes?"

"Correct," Murdus replied, eyeing me warily

"Then have it written into the contract, if and when Hallutush takes a noble as wife, that noble woman will become the first wife. As a noble, he can have four wives, so legally it isn't a problem." I thought for a moment and then nodded. "That should make everyone happy."

Murdus raised an eyebrow, intrigue softening his features. "Do you think Merit would agree?"

"If she wants to marry him, she doesn't really have a choice." I said dryly. "At that rank, the family means everything and no matter how stubborn Hallutush is, he's also an extremely loyal person... both to the king and to his family."

Murdus smiled faintly, the first glimmer of true relief crossing his face. "You're not wrong. If it keeps him happy and satisfies the family, it might just work."

"Ahh... yes," I mused, leaning back in my chair as a wry smile tugged at my lips. "I was wondering why you looked so irritated beneath that charmingly polite facade. Hmmm... I must admit, I don't even know if Merit is truly interested in marrying him. But..." I tapped a finger on the table as if to punctuate my thought. "My instincts say she is."

Murdus blinked in surprise, his brows shooting up like startled birds. "Why wouldn't she be interested? I mean, he's a good-looking young prince! Half the women in the city would give anything to marry him."

I arched an eyebrow. "Because she has a brain," I replied dryly. "Merit is aware that she isn't noble and if she marries one, there's a lot of things she needs to learn. What to say, what not to say. How to behave, what is considered rude and everything else a noble needs to know."