Slaves

I woke alone again. Considering what I had been through in my life that was probably safest. It wasn't anything all the other men who survived the arena didn't go through but in the moments between waking and sleep my body reacts to memories instead of the moment. It was the first time in a long time I had woken before the sun. I could feel the women in their room. They were sharing the bed with their backs to each other. They seemed peaceful and I only felt a little bad that I could see them without them knowing.

The messenger was waiting for me in the hall, "Don't you ever sleep?"

"Yes, about an hour every three or four days. It is a side effect of being favored. Our lord doesn't seem to sleep at all."

"I am stronger then you, though."

"We still aren't sure what you are. You are not a special and your power doesn't come from being favored, by our lord or any other."

I swallowed, "So do you think I am some very high gen vampire?"

"You would be dead if our lord thought that, no you seem human. Hence the women. Our lord seems to have similar logic on human behavior as you."

"He wants to know if I can breed?"

The messenger nodded as we started down the stairs. "He still doesn't know if that is a good thing or not, at least your strangeness works for him in that regard."

"Since finding out beforehand tends to preclude the possibility, but if it doesn't work out he will know where all my offspring are to end the line."

"Possibly it is hard to say."

I sighed as we reached the landing of the main floor. "At least if it is unfavorable, I will already be dead."

The messenger smiled; there was no humor in it, "Our lord is merciful."

I walked into the dining room and was surprised to see four of my brothers had beaten me here. Well I had been surprised when they hadn't been on the third floor and when I found them as I reached the main floor. So I knew they were there long before I actually got to the dining room, but same thing. "Travis, I didn't know you were such an early riser."

He looked up in surprise as I talked from the doorway. There were a couple of slaves in the room they ducked their heads as I spoke. "Everyone knows you aren't. Sex agree with you that much? Maybe you should have started sooner."

I wondered if my eyes twinkled as I didn't laugh, "What normal men do doesn't have quite this effect. You might be of the temperament to understand after the terms of our last fight are met. I wouldn't have been able to include you if you were able to understand."

"Don't push it boy, I still think you are just going to get hurt."

"Oh yes, I will get hurt, and I will hurt others. Such is life, and it beats the alternative."

"I don't know, you can only try the alternative once." He looked at one of the slaves, "What are you waiting for? Bring us breakfast while we wait on the rest of our group."

The slave bowed and headed out of the room. The collar had shown as just over half set. So I noted the man. He seemed to be more accepting of his place. The women had washed up before coming down. With a group of three of my brothers. They still weren't the last to arrive as one brother seemed to be sleeping in a bit. A couple of priests came in the front door while we ate and talked. They bowed to the messenger.

The messenger turned to face the priests, and the room got quiet, "Thanks for stopping by, our lord is worried about the safety of the two women if they go wandering around the city or countryside. You will stay with them and make sure they don't get hurt. You are not to stop them from doing anything they want as long as they are safe." The two priests looked more surprised then anyone else.

One of the priests started, "But what-"

"These are orders, you don't believe you have something more important to do, do you?"

"Of course not, messenger."

"Good. Your normal duties are suspended, until otherwise informed you will make yourselves available to go with the women when they wish to leave the house. I believe you can find enough duties near the house to keep you busy while you wait." It was clearly a dismissal and the priests bowed and left. The messenger turned to the two women who were picking at the plate I had been eating. "They should be were they can see the door of the house, if you leave, please wait out front for a few minutes and one of them should show up to escort you. Our lord doesn't intend for them to be a burden for you. Feel free to use them as an extra set of hands if you need them even. They will report only to me or our lord until he decides to lift this task."

Bella and Isa nodded to the messenger and said together, "I live to serve the lord."

The messenger nodded back to them with a smile. "Your work and loyalty is noted."

The women both kissed me on my cheek as they stood to leave. I watched them with surprise as they left the room, and my sleepy brother entered. He looked from me to them a couple of times before finding his own food. My brothers seemed unsure of me. I might be odd, but I was predictable to them. How I was behaving around those two women seemed at odds with what they thought they knew about me.

"If a few of you want to bring up the worst trouble makers so far? I was thinking the first large room on the right on the second floor would be a good place to go over what I want to talk about. The room on the left is bigger and I thought that would make a good practice room, when we get back to training, the room at the end might make a good break out room if we need one."

Travis and the older two men nodded as the other six men were watching them. Travis seemed to have become my second and he answered, "That sounds workable. These three and I will bring up the ones you wanted." I nodded and they left.

The others came up to the room I had mentioned. It was a couple doors down from the room I was using as a study. The room was empty but for a few benches that formed three sides of a square in the middle of the room. The walls were white but not perfectly so, I would say that it looked like some sort of ink was on the walls but if it had meat anything before it was wiped away now. I had been thinking about the problem with the collars. In order for my brothers to use them they would have to memorize all 90 seemingly random word combinations. I knew my brothers could not read, but they could count.

I picked a wall and found some paint. It should work. I left plenty of space and started writing numbers from 1 to 90. I wrote them in two rows leaving more space then I thought I would need. I had just finished when my other brothers got back. Travis was carrying two men who had been tied up to the point they couldn't move much. The other three slaves walked behind him. They had their arms tied in front of them and their feet tied together. They wouldn't be able to get far if they decided to fight the men behind them. I watched as the trainer set the two men down where there wasn't a bench. They must have made him mad because he just dropped them like a sack of veggies.