Jaina lay in bed with Gisley and Evalynn; the three pulled tightly together as the shock of recent events began to wear off. They had reached the city and the safety of Rajeen's inn two days ago and were immediately surrounded by defenders.
Rajeen had been out on a mission of importance, hunting down a lead to the person spreading the lie. Now she was back, and her anger was fierce as she found not one or two but seven people working to spread the rumor. She attempted to capture them, but several were of sufficient level and had guards. They managed to escape in pitched battles, one of which left a city block in flames and angered the local rulership. Rajeen did manage to bring down two of them, one of which was assassinated hours later before she could be interrogated.
The last was a dwarf woman who defiantly told Rajeen where she could stick her questions. Rajeen paid a handsome sum to the local rogues to find out what the woman had been doing. It took a few days of questioning, but they discovered that not only had she posted some of the notices, but there was a magic at play. The rogues discovered that a magical ward had been discreetly placed in areas where players congregated like inns or market squares. It wasn't very powerful, so it wasn't easily noticed, but it was a form of suggestion. It urged the players to act on the letters and feel a desire to do what it said. It also suppressed the player's empathy, making them uncaring about hurting the girls.
Rajeen faced some trouble with several lords until she pointed out how their people were being manipulated. This sent many a town into a frenzy as counterspells were deployed to free people from the subtle touch.
Now rulers wanted the dwarf and anyone else connected to the notices. So Rajeen offered the woman a chance to escape in exchange for answers, or she would hand her over to the angry mob.
This loosened her tongue, and the answers hadn't been pretty. She was part of a group that worked for the silken princes. They made their living by traveling the regions and buying interesting slave girls to sell to the princess. The princes paid handsomely for something unique, and right now, the prices had never been higher. They were holding a competition to see who could procure the rarest girl of all. The winner would be crowned the silk king and made ruler over the others.
Groups of slave hunters were scouring the land for various patrons, and Alexandria had contacted her group. She claimed to have one of the rarest race and class combinations ever and demanded a high price. She promised to deliver Jaina to their hands, so they paid her in advance and traveled a significant distance to collect the prize.
They arrived only to discover Alexandria didn't have the girl, and more importantly, she had spent the money trying to acquire her. They demanded the money back, but Alexandria stalled for time, promising to get it soon. That turned out to be her attempt to steal it from them, but when they turned the tables and stole it back, she got desperate. She used the last of her personal funds to hire the assassins. Her plan was simple. Jaina had proven immune to her deceiver skills, so she would reset Jaina and hope that she would be far easier to control at level one.
The slave collectors didn't want an unwilling slave as she couldn't be collared. So Alexandria needed her powers to work, or Jaina would be useless to them. As they listened to the story, Jaina realized why Alexandria was so angry that she wanted to stay with Roric. It was because she was attacking Jaina with deception skills and gaining no ground. She needed Jaina to come willingly, or everything would fall apart.
The slave collectors gave her an ultimatum, deliver Jaina or they were going to take her instead. Alexandria's last effort was the battle in the dungeon, where she paid for the aid of a mercenary group with promises. When they failed to acquire Jaina, she fled, releasing her girls and vanishing into the night.
The collectors were now hunting for her, as were the mercenaries, but the journey hadn't been a total loss. The battle in the dungeon revealed a prize as good or better than the morphic. Gisley was a lunar fairy, and after some discreet spying, they learned she was also a prostitute class. Either of those factors made her valuable, but both together made her worth a fortune. If they could deliver Jaina and Gisley together, their chosen prince was sure to win, and they would each be elevated to princes themselves.
Rajeen wasn't pleased with the answer because the attacks on the forest were meant to kill, not capture. The dwarf explained they wanted to put them under terrible pressure, so they felt they had no way out. Then the group would approach them and offer a solution as if they were just friendly players horrified by the situation. They would explain how they worked for the distant princes and were searching for rare girls. They had the means to keep the girls safe and deliver them to a life where they would be treated like princesses and loved by all. An offer would be made to buy them after some mind-influencing spells had been placed on Roric. They would convince him that he loved them so much he would do anything to see them happy. He would sell them willingly, and they would go, believing it was his wish. Thus they would have the girls willingly collared, and their ascension would be assured.
Jaina had never seen a look of disgust cross the tiger woman's face before, but as she retold the story, it soured. She found this group's actions revolting but held to her promise. The dwarf had given her answers, so she was set free; however, not before Rajeen delivered a threat of her own. She and her allies would be watching, and if the silken princes or their allies ever operated in this region again, she would take direct action.
The dwarf woman had laughed and assured Rajeen she had no idea what she was getting involved in. She was thrown out of the building Rajeen used as her base of operations and was summarily murdered in the street by an unseen assassin. Somebody clearly didn't want the agents talking and was willing to go to drastic measures to prevent it. The woman would probably respawn hundreds of kilometers away, safe from any who sought to detain her.
Roric, Rajeen, and Santos sat in a long discussion about what to do. Alexandria was on the run herself and no longer a threat, but she had exposed them to a far more dangerous group. Even with the locals aware of the manipulations, the group would likely still try to acquire the girls. The prize was too great, and girls were the price of victory.
The local duke, a man by the name of Estavan, sent a messenger to assure them that he would protect them while they were inside his territory. Roric was sending Jaina that very night to thank him in person for his kindness. Still, the man's guards couldn't be everywhere, and the enemy was cunning. Using charms, subtle manipulation, and playing on player greed wreaked havoc. Roric wasn't so sure he wouldn't have accepted that offer. He would have become heartbroken if he had been forced to witness his girls brutalized and beaten repeatedly. He did love them, and knowing they were safer where they would be happy would have been a tantalizing offer.
All three of them assured him they would not be happy with anyone but him as their master. They would have been devastated if he had sold them and told them to go. No matter how great the splendor of this prince's home, they would have been miserable, missing the one man who made them whole.
Rajeen complimented him on his choice of slave girls and how he won their hearts. Roric was moved to tears and had to hold them tightly, promising he would never let them go. They shared a hug that was even joined by Chandice, who quietly held them with him. He was grateful beyond measure for his girls and wished things had gone better. Still, they were relieved to hear that players had been influenced by magic, and many would not have participated otherwise.
The meeting eventually arrived at what to do now. Roric was welcome to stay in the city for as long as he wanted, but they all knew that couldn't be. The love wood needed to be rebuilt someplace far away where they were free of outside influence. Rajeen suggested they go far to the south and close to the southeastern spawn ring. The land there was sparsely populated with lots of open space and tiny but friendly kingdoms.
Roric took it into consideration, but Jaina had another thought. She urged him to consider looking for the succubus and explore the possibility of the magic tattoo. Rajeen reminded her that she would have to live with some disadvantages, but to Jaina, the possible gains outweighed those.
They spoke about it for a long time then Rajeen finally made a suggestion. Why not do both, or at least appear to? Since she had been to the succubus before, she would arrange for a wizard to open a portal that would carry them far to the north. This would shorten their journey by weeks and have the added benefit of leaving their enemies far behind. She would have her witch friend craft a polymorph potion based on each of them. These potions would turn six of her harem girls into exact copies of them. She would then have the girls walk about the inn for a few days and have conversations that could be overheard. They would allow the news that they would leave in a few days to go southwest to leak out. The rumor would be spread that Rajeen had a way to sneak them out of the city, and they would vanish into the night. Then when the potions faded, it would appear they had done just that, but by that time, they would be far to the north. Anyone looking to find them would be searching in the wrong direction. Once they found the succubus, they could go southeast and never be noticed again. Hopefully, they would find peace in the far east, and their forest would flourish as it should have.
"Will you still be able to visit?" Jaina asked, feeling terrible that they would be so far away.
"I promise I will find a way to come to see you," Rajeen replied. "But we will always have the glitter to see each other in our dreams."
"It won't be the same," Jaina said and fell into her arms. "We love you."
Rajeen closed her eyes and hugged the woman, trying hard not to shed a tear. She had come to love these girls as much as their master and deeply wished they could stay together. However, she would never deny the world the beauty of the forest they wanted to build. It was a dream of such pure passion that it would be a crime not to see it done. She urged Jaina to be strong and assured her they would see each other again. Somehow the path would present itself, and they would be in each other's arms once again.
The plan was agreed upon, and the course was set. They would portal to the north while harem girls masquerading as them led spies to believe they were still here. The potions would take a few days to craft, and while they waited, the girls would dance again. They would rebuild some of their lost money so they could start again on a much smaller scale. They parted to get ready for the dance, and the girls were in a somber mood. They met in the little dressing room to put on the clothing they would soon be taking off. It seemed funny that people paid them to strip when they walked around naked most of the time anyway.
"This doesn't feel as fun," Gisley admitted as she put on her black dress. "It will take us a week to earn all that money back."
"I know what you mean," Jaina agreed as she pulled up a stocking. "But we need to make what we can in the few days we have."
