Page 14 of Xeda

He nodded. "Good. Good." His eyes drifted down her body, then back up. "You still like it there?"

"Yes, sir."

"Because you know I can give you a better position. Something in the house, maybe?"

He'd asked her before. He had even once tried to persuade her to be his wife's waiting woman, but she had refused. Thankfully, his wife hadn't liked the idea either.

"I like where I am, sir."

He shrugged, then sighed. “All right, well, listen, Ophilia, I just want you to be comfortable, you know? Happy. You want to be happy, don't you?"

"I'm...fine, sir."

"No one is truly happy working, let's be serious," he continued. "Not in that heat. Sure, people want to fill their time, but it's all distraction. Or some bullshit sense of duty, you know? Someone gotta do it, right?"

"I guess so."

"Right, sure, you get it." He took another drop and another drink. "But I'm going to be honest. I hate having to see you work out there. Your dad would hate it too. I know your family's got debt. Debt doesn't go away even in death. Your dad got that, rest his fucking soul. And your mom, well she did too. She understood. Debt has to be paid. But"—he pointed his finger at her—"but there are other ways to pay when the money goes dry, right? Not just working, which you've been doing here how long. Four years?"

"That's right, sir."

"Four years in that heat. Fuck me, don't you want to be done with it?" She didn't know what to say, so he continued. "I'm telling you this because I can get you out of it, Ophilia. No more cleaning shit and piss out of pens and waiting for the mouths you feed to come bite you. You would be living life almost just like this." He gestured around him. "How does that sound?"

She didn't like the sound of it at all, really. Not unless he was about to tell her they had found a way to raise her family from the dead.

And seeing as that sort of technology wasn't found anywhere, even in glorious Kingsway, that only left one other option.

Her throat tightened, her body going rigid. Dread filled her veins.

"Eliam of House Lageth is looking for another wife," he answered, then put up his hand before she could speak. "I think you'd make a good candidate. You come from a prominent if less known house. You are not bad on the eyes, and you’ve still got that energy, that drive. Why waste your time caring for animals when you could be caring for kids? Raise them to be better than my two mistakes." He laughed. "Listen, you don't have to say anything now, but I put your name out, just for consideration. I didn't think he'd actually be interested, but I was wrong, and you see, I owe him too. Everyone has got debt. It comes full circle. I owe him a favor, and you owe me, right? So, this could be good for both of us."

Ophilia didn't know what to say. But she wanted to slap herself for not thinking he would pull something like this sooner or later. Then she wanted to slap him for actually considering it. After all, she was nothing more than another asset to her father's name. Jones. Another piece to be bought and paid for when Sal had the chance.

Her family had once been powerful too. Not like Salimar but close. Smaller with less influence in the city. But they had a very good piece of land for mining. The planet might not have had the correct levels of oxygen before it had been terraformed, but it was rich in minerals from the pockets of oxygen and hydrogen beneath the ground. Too bad her family hadn't been tough enough to withstand the bullies around them and didn't make enough allies. She was young when the assassinations had happened but not too young that she couldn't remember. Her father, mother, and two brothers all died the same day she was taken by officials of Kingsway. She spent the rest of her childhood under the roof of another house with family ties. House Myre.

But her family had owed Salimar for a trade in weapons that they never got a chance to use. The debt was still there, but all the money had dried up, the rest of the property taken. So, Sal had come collecting. And House Myre, indifferent, whether she had some tie to their family or not, let him.

She'd spent the last four years under his house. Doing the only thing she remotely cared about. She had taken a liking to House Myre's pets as well and their caretaker had let her watch and learn from him. He was the only one ever to respect her for more than her name.

"Don't look so sad, Ophilia," Sal said. "This isn't a sad thing. This is a good thing. You should be in a house getting cared for, not the other way around. And there's no other way you're getting out of this debt. Not unless you plan to work it off in the next ten years. And you don't want that, right?"

She knew being honest would only bite her in the ass. Sal would have his way whether she liked it or not. Still, hating the very idea of his offer, she said, "I'm fine working."

"Listen, we'll get it all figured out, so take some time to get the idea in your head and see it's a great decision. You'll see, I know you will." He waved his hand at the guard by the door. They swung the door open so that she could leave. In the hall, Warren was waiting for her as he promised, a smile still on his face.

"Eliam will be visiting soon. You two can talk then, and you'll see he's a nice guy."

Ophilia rose and made for the door, ready to get out of the room and back to her own so that she could scream. But not before Sal stopped her one more time.

"And Ophilia, watch yourself around the training yard, all right? I heard you've been lurking around our new fighter. You know how Hendrik gets. He doesn't want you messing around. And I don't want to be seeing you in the glasshouse because of some fuck up, right? So, be a good girl and stick to your pens. The animals Hendrik deals with are too dangerous even for you."

CHAPTERFIVE

Xeda

Time passed in its way. He watched the light come and go, watched the shadows fall. He felt nothing. Even when that burly, disgusting human—Hendrik, he learned to be his name—came to visit and try his hand at breaking him, he'd grown numb to the pain. Indifferent almost. Though there was still rage simmering on the surface, begging to be unleashed.

In time, he would let it. For now, he let the disgusting human think he was getting to him. The branding had been a blow, but he was used to being marked. He told himself it meant nothing. They could shred him apart until he was nothing but bones. Black bones and fiery, hellbent eyes. He imagined himself walking around in such a form, watching the humans piss themselves with fear. It was a nice thought.

---