The Red Scourge

Part I

"But it is Rinessa Osten, currently bearing the titles of Dark Empress of Otrek, Sublime Mistress of the Rose Throne, and Tamer of the Scourge, that may be the greatest threat to the Dannashi Kingdom. Born in 1505, the bastard daughter of Grand Duke Osten, whom she has recently usurped, her rise as the greatest ruler in the Free Kingdoms since the Great Rebellion has been unexpected. Her career began, somewhat surprisingly, with a brief stint as an obdinika on behalf of her father in the slave city of Stulak during her youth..."

-Excerpt from a report on the state of the Free Kingdoms, by Danaashi Under-Minister of Internal Harmony, Petar Forstelan, May 3, 1535th year of Orim

Black iron shackles hang on the wall. Hands in the shackles. Body slumped on the ground. Bloody lashes on the body. Filthy hair streaming down to the waist. A moan of agony emerges. The figure looks up at her. Its chapped and bleeding lips are moving. The words ooze out slowly. "In..." The world shakes.

"Mistress?" a small voice penetrates the world. Dainty hands gently move her body left and right. "Mistress?"

Rinessa's eyes fluttered opened sleepily, the familiar dream fading away. Sighing, she pushed her slave girl's hand away. What was this one's name again? Zeva? Heva?

"Why are you bothering me?" she said, with a bit of a snarl. The little blonde haired dawn elf cringed as if struck. Seva. That was it. The elven sluska glanced out the inn room's window at the dawning sun and bit her lip. This Seva may not have been very well trained but she knew enough not to correct her Mistress.

"The buyers coming in three hours after dawn," Rinessa said, remembering as she saw the girl looking out the window. Rinessa yawned as she pushed a lock of her soft silvery hair away from her face. She sat up in her bed as the girl nodded.

"Yes Mistress," Seva stammered nervously. "You...You informed this one that it should wake you at dawn...Mistress."

Rinessa removed her bed covers, stepped out of her bed, and stood up. Her long white locks tumbled down her face and back in an uncoordinated fall. Irritated, she walked to her bureau, glancing at the slave girl. "Assist me Seva. I'll have to look my best for these buyers."

The Seva girl nodded and rushed to comply with Rinessa's orders, seizing the wooden brush, and begin to fervently brush the tangles out. As the girl worked Rinessa thought about that dream. She had dreamt it for years, ever since her mother had died when she was just a girl, but she never saw much else but that mysterious figure mouthing the word "In," was all it ever said. "In what?" she thought, frustrated.

Rinessa's thoughts were interrupted as she cried and she jerked her head forward in pain. She turned see her furious golden eyes on her mortified sluska.

"Mistress...I'm so...This one is so sorry this one means," the elf girl said, stumbling over her words. She lowered her head at Rinessa's angry gaze. "Should this one prepare for punishment?"

Rinessa frowned. Seva had been hoisted onto Rinessa as a gift by her father, Grand Duke Chan Osten, before her trip to the slave city of Stulak to sell his recently acquired zobzi. Pretty yes, but young, inexperienced, perhaps a bit slow... Rinessa got the feeling that this Seva girl had been given to her as a joke. Still, Rinessa's father had taught her that any mistake by a slave, no matter how minor, should be dealt with severely.

Rinessa stood up, grabbed the girl by the arm, and flung her to the ground unceremoniously. "Proper" slave punishment was loaded with little rituals in the Free Kingdoms, but she was short on time and long on irritation. Without her whip handy Rinessa grabbed the hair brush and sent the flat of it on Seva's ass hard. The gauzy silk slave robe did little to cushion the blow and the cry of pain from the young elf girl, almost absurdly, sent a pang of guilt went through Rinessa.

Ignoring it, Rinessa took off her slippers and pushed the girl's face into the room's carpet with her foot as Seva cried out, "One! This one thanks you Mistress!" Rinessa could choose to ignore ritual but a slave dare not. Another hard stroke of the brush. Another cry of "This one thanks you Mistress!" Another pang of guilt.

She paused as she realized that this was the first time she was to discipline a slave without one of her father's cronies there to prod her to beat the slave harder, to make them suffer longer, to lower them further.

In lieu of more strokes, Rinessa put the brush back on the bureau and pulled Seva up, almost gently. "You've learned your lesson Seva haven't you?" The sluska looked surprised but nodded quickly. "Excellent. Then back to work." Rinessa sat back in the chair and heard Seva sniffle a little as she went back to combing her Mistress's hair.

There was no more conversation as Seva completed the hair brushing without another painful snag. Seva prepared the expensive betel nut hair oil and began to work it on Rinessa's hair diligently, giving it an almost iridescent glow, all the while struggling not to cry from the pain.

Rinessa tried to suppress her feelings again. After all, she had been taught that in the Free Kingdoms a slave should never be talked to familiarly, should never be apologized to, should never be allowed to feel that it was close to being equal to their betters.

"I'm sorry Seva," Rinessa said as the girl gave her hair its final oil rubs. "This job I've been sent here to do is not of my choosing...and it has been making me cross. You're doing a fine job." She gave the girl a warm smile.

Seva hesitated, as if she wasn't sure if this were a trick or not. She silently wiped some tears from her eyes as she said, "As you say Mistress. What shall Mistress be wearing today?"

"The rukuvu," she replied at once. Perhaps the only good thing about this cesspool was the fashion, if not the overdone makeup. Rinessa found herself with the need to buy a particularly tight black leather rukuvu adorned with gold piping and buttons and with a high collar. As Seva returned began to help Rinessa into the dress, Rinessa's kazen, a tall brute of a man by the name of Umbroze walked into her room, unannounced.

One of her father's cronies, the man had all the hallmarks of an effective kazen, cruel, sadistic, intimidating, and he was a complete lecher to boot. He was handsome in his own way, with rippling muscles, a full mustache, and chiseled features. Any obdinika would count themselves lucky to have him both on the slave lines and, perhaps, in bed.

Rinessa, on the other hand, couldn't think of anyone else in the world she wanted to see less.

"Good morrow...my Lady. I see you are wearing the colors of your father's House. Quite appropriate." She wasn't sure what she hated more: the slight pause and small smirk every time he said "my Lady" or the unsubtle lust in his eyes when he looked at both her and Seva.

She glanced at him coldly, noting that the lummox didn't bother to ask permission to enter. In the Free Kingdoms, it was acceptable for those of the same social standing to change in the presence of the opposite sex, but, technically, Rinessa outranked Umbroze so he was acting against protocol.

"I do not recall giving you permission to enter my room, kazen," she said, using his formal title, as Seva buttoned the last button on her rukuvu.

Umbroze spied a bowl of nuts and took one as he shrugged. "The door was open. Would you like me to leave...my Lady?" He crunched the nut loudly between his teeth.

Her father must have given him orders to be as much of an insufferable ass as possible, she thought "As you wish," she told him before sitting down. Seva struggled to avoid eye contact with Umbroze as she prepared Rinessa's makeup. "Is there something you need Umbroze?"

"Just seeing if you were ready for this deal seeing how it's your first one and all. Many of his Highness's zobzi are restless." Rinessa closed her eyes and lifted her head as Seva applied the light makeup to her face. When she opened her eyes she spotted Umbroze looking at her with the same look men had before they used a pusta. A sudden urge came over her to rip out one of her kaven's eyes and squash it like a grape. But that would not be lady like, not even for an Otreki lady.

"It's not all a matter of looking young and pretty...my Lady," he continued, still giving her that sleazy look. "It may be necessary to..."

Rinessa had heard just about enough. She pushed Seva's hands away before turning to face him. "I've heard enough 'advice' from you kazen. Now I'd thank you to leave me be."

Umbroze feigned a look of abashment. He bowed with his signature sarcastic smirk. "Of course... my Lady. I'll stay amongst the zobzi and serve at your pleasure." Rinessa spotted him giving Seva a wink before he left the room with a flourish.

Rinessa sighed loudly as she sat down and lifted her feet. Seva unrolled Rinessa's stockings and began to put them on her legs. "That worthless son of a bitch," she heard herself say. Seva had nothing to say to that as she concentrated on making the leggings smooth and wrinkle-less.

"Ten and nine summers in my life and I do not think I have ever met one such as him," she said. She paused. "How many summers have you seen Seva?"

Seva looked up, surprised. This wasn't a question that was often asked of slaves when they weren't being bought and sold. "Just...six and ten Mistress. That's three and ten, by human growth." Seva finished her work and paused, looking up at her. "If...if it please Mistress," Seva added, stuttering again. "Why does Mistress ask about this one's age?

You're the only one I talk to in this trash heap of a city that I don't want to strangle, Rinessa thought. "A flight of fancy," she replied. "It makes no matter. Get my black raised heels Seva."

Once Seva had put the heels on Rinessa, she stood up and looked at herself in the room's mirror. By any measuring stick in the Free Kingdoms, she should consider her life a good one. She was part of a wealthy and powerful royal family. She had a well-paying and respectable job as a trader in flesh. She had an exotic spell touched look that half the women in Otrek would kill for.

Rinessa sighed wearily, feeling like she had a lifetime's worth of burdens to carry already. "Come, Seva. Let's do our duty."