Chapitre 87: Cherazza 2
286AC
She was sprawled across three velvet pillows, lounging as she ate away at the sweet-grapes which filled the bowl in front of her. There was little for her to do since she had finished her music lessons for the day, so instead, she merely waited to the side while her father finished settling his accounts and holding court for the day.
"And that was why I am unable to pay my debt this day, oh wise master. Please grant me another four days and I will bring you all you ask and ten percent more."
The plea came from an overweight man, a merchant with her father's backing. He owed her father a great deal of money, but the caravan which his men led was running late.
"Mhm." Her father stroked hid goatee lightly. "You have five days, but I expect the payment to be prompt the moment that the Caravan arrives, or else you will be paying off your debt to the Tigers in the blood pits of Yunkai."
The man nodded, pressing his face to the floor at her father's feet. "Oh thank you, wise and beneficent master. I will not forget your mercy this day."
Her father nodded, dismissing the man, and glanced towards the door.
Once the line of courtiers he would address on a daily basis was far longer, his court held into the late evening, but now they tended to dry up around midday. Ever since his fleet had sunk off the coast of Sothoryos their family's power had been in decline. Her father could see it too, rubbing between his eyes at the lack of business, he gestured one of the courier slaves over. "Fetch me Agazmon, I want to hear how our chained dragon is doing with his training."
The slave nodded, sprinting off down to the servers stair, and towards the base of the pyramid where the slaves in training were kept before they were sent to the pleasure palaces as entertainers or whores. A few moments later, the courier returned, guiding her father's slave breaker. Agazmon was a large, and cruel-looking man, dark-skinned and of Sothoryosi stock who wore a plain grey Tomar, he bore an enormous tattoo of a stylized Rhino over his back, chest, and shoulders, and he claimed that his ancestor was a rhino-man from Gorgossos. He certainly looked it, what with his upturned nose. She had seen true beast-men captured from the ruins of that city before though, and it was clear by his largely human appearance that whatever Rhino blood ran in Agazmon's veins was thin at best. The purest of them often even bore the heads of animals, from what she had heard.
Agazmon himself had once been her father's slave, but proven such an excellent trainer that he had been freed, he was known to be exceptionally skilled with bed slaves, despite his intimidating appearance, or perhaps because of it, and that was largely his role in the pyramid, as well as being one of her father's most loyal free-servants.
Her father nodded to the enormous man, gesturing for him to cease bowing. "It is good to see you this day, Master." The Rhino-man said as he stood to his full height. "What do you need from your humble servant?"
"Tell me. How go the Dragon boy's lessons? I would like him to be well prepared by the time of the festival of the harpy in three months."
A complicated look passed over the dark man's face, and after a moment he answered. "Well in some ways, and poorly in others. The boy knows well the Slave's lesson and is as obedient as one raised from birth. He also has proven intelligent, despite what I had first taken to be muteness or stupidity, his mind is actually like a dry Tokar thrown into a bath, absorbing all things around it. He has already proven to grasp most of the Sighs and the Seats of pleasure in concept if not mastery. I have no doubt that by the time of the feast he will be ready in that regard."
"That is good, that is good." Her father said, reclining in his chair. "What then, is the issue?"
Agazmon winced but continued dutifully. "The boy- well. He has no passion, no drive or lust or anything at all. He learns the techniques as quickly as any I have ever seen, but whether handling men or women he merely goes through the motions. It is as if he were a walking corpse, empty of will."
Her father brushed his hair out of his face, grumbling. "Of course the Red Witch of Asshai brings cursed gifts." The Wise master seemed on the verge of cursing the woman but stopped. For as he had told her when she had asked, it was wise to fear the Red Witch's power, even when she was not present. "Can you think of any way to recover his will, make him passionate enough to please the other Master's?"
"That is not my expertise, Master."
"Drat… You can go then Agazmon. Do all you can with him. He will at least bring status to me by his blood, if not his ability."
The larger man nodded, and Cherazza watched him depart. She had not thought too much of the boy slave since the Red Witch had brought him, for the Witch's story her father had told her was more interesting, and frightening besides, but now her mind turned back to the boy who seemed so broken and empty.
Perhaps he would tell her more of the witch and she might find out his story, what magic she had used to break his will so thoroughly that Agazmon had nothing left to even reshape.
She stood carefully from the table, bringing with her a bowl of grapes and a few pieces of soft, oiled bread to bribe the boy, as she did her guards when she wished to go out in the evening.
After all, he might well be dead inside, but if his body lived than he would still need to eat.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone