Of Crows and Songbirds (Part 2)

“They’re also good. Were more regular employees of his — cheaper, and didn’t seem to be as irritated by him as Pratik and Isya were. They only agreed when Aleth was offering an arm and a leg. But Wyl and Jae did a lot of jobs for him. Wyl is tall, muscular, sandy brown skin and dark eyes. He’s from Totallisa. Um… Jaerek is pale, brown hair, more average build. Not sure where he’s from.”

(Not immediately relevant, but I’ve decided that in this iteration Aleth never asked Pratik to be the hitman for Ky. I realized that that opens up a big plot hole for why he didn’t realize she was a slave and rescue her, if Aleth asked him to do something like that. So just gonna have him be uninformed all around)

(Okay excellent! Works for me.)

Gaius dipped his head, filing that information away. "I'll have people keep an eye out for them, though I don't think you're in danger just yet."

“Yessir.” Ky dipped her head. She agreed, in terms of the assassins. But she wouldn’t be breathing easy for many, many more weeks until she ensured Ash wasn’t going to change his mind about her and Tadaaki. Noblemen were fickle creatures at their core, and the only thing she knew about this one was that he was smart, paranoid, and aware that she was a spy. Those were not fantastic traits to pair together. “I imagine it’ll take a bit for word to spread.”

"Word won't spread at all, so long as we keep his identity to ourselves." He'd made sure no servants were present in the dining hall for this very reason."

“Yessir.” Ky ducked her head, but she wasn’t so sure. Word always spread. Soldiers talked. Servants whispered. Walls listened. It was only a matter of time before word got out that the mighty Aleth Klev was rotting in the dungeon of Serpent Keep. If not Ash’s employees, then Tarr’s for sure. The assassins were coming for them sooner or later. Unless Ash decided to finish them off first himself.

"I will dispatch trusted individuals to bring your family here on the morrow, Tadaaki," Gaius added. "And I'll be looking into Makata as well, Ky."

That made Tadaaki relax and Ky tense at the very same moment.

“Thank you, sir,” Tadaaki murmured, dipping his head appreciatively. Gods. This was the absolute best-case scenario. He didn’t have to beg to leave. Didn’t have to figure out how to make it half way across the continent by himself, faster than word could get out that Aleth was out of the picture now. No. Ash was going to do all that for him. Send soldiers, probably, to protect his family. Bring them here so they’d be safe.

He had to choose to believe that that was what was going to happen. That Ash was a man of his word. That this wasn’t some elaborate plot to hurt him even worse. Ash didn’t seem the kind of man to go to lengths like this just to torment a slave. What would be the point in wasting all the time and resources to go fetch his family, when Ky was right here: the low hanging fruit that would absolutely hurt Tadaaki if Ash harmed her? As much as it’d hurt him if anyone hurt Aashi or Tasia, he was progressively realizing it would hurt him equally badly if anyone hurt Ky. He didn’t love her in the same way that he loved Aashi, but he loved her just as much.


There was absolutely no universe in which taking on Makata was a good idea. No. Universe. He was going to make this so much worse. Makata would retaliate somehow, she was sure. Her friends were his slaves and the rest of her township were his subjects. And he was an overgrown man child on an ego trip that was going to hurt all the people she cared about when Ash went provoking him. She wished she would have left the details out about that one.

"Does he make any secret of this harem or how he acquires concubines?" Gaius asked her.

“…I don’t know, sir,” she admitted. “We’d never heard of it before we got taken, but we were fairly secluded for the most part… I know he took kids from at least three other sectors at the same time as us… and that’s about all I know, sir. I was actively trying to make sure no one thought of me when they thought of the harem, so I didn’t ask any questions, sir. Just stayed in the stables with my head ducked.”

"I'll see if my ambassador can speak to the Taral about it," he replied. "I'll have to go through King Harold, of course...that could prove to be an issue."

Ky grimaced. Holy hell. The king. The Taral. A Lord bugging them all on behalf of the likes of her. That was horrifying. She really, really shouldn’t have told him the truth. “It’s… not really necessary, sir,” she said quietly, blushing. “It… I appreciate the offer very much, sir. But… um… I understand it is a delicate situation, and, um…” She’d really rather he not poke it.

"This man kidnaps children for a harem," Gaius said coolly. "I think it's quite necessary to bring this to the attention of the Taral. If he already knew, then we have a problem. But a man of his integrity wouldn't allow something like that."

Well this was horrifying. This man was actually crazy enough to go get himself caught up in the middle of a situation like that. To chastise the Taral himself and tell him to get his Governors under control. This was—it would— this was going to be bad. Why the hell had she been truthful?

She blushed profusely and ducked her head. There was nothing she could say to that. He was right. Makata was unequivocally in the wrong. But… you couldn’t just go bullying powerful men. That’s how people ended up dead. Particularly, that’s how peasants ended up dead. When powerful men got into pissing matches with each other and got their feelings hurt. “Yes sir.”

"Do you know if he has any slighted allies or enemies?"

“I honestly don’t know, sir,” Ky said. “The last time he hired Aleth was when he gave me to him as a ‘thank you’ I guess, before I knew all the ins and outs of what Aleth did. So I don’t know much about him, sir. Just… that… neither he nor his soldiers are particularly kind to us, on the whole… though there was one nice soldier I met there… I assume there were probably others, too.”