45

"Get your ass out here," he shouted over his shoulder without taking his eyes off me.

The noise cancelling in the walls only went one way. The dwarf in the back would be able to hear us even if we couldn't hear him.

"Get your ass out here," he stepped over to the doorway as if that would make him hear us better, "Get out here or I'll drag you out here."

I sensed it when he tossed his blade down. Clearly irritated to be interrupted when he was just trying to do his job. He strode out of the back, and up behind the counter. The scars on his neck told me that he was in the habit of ignoring his collar.

"Balock right?" I tilted my chin up to greet him.

It was a break from my usual silence. The dwarf's eye's widened at the mention of his name. The shop owner tried to punch me a second later.

"Who gave you permission to...?" his voice trailed off when he realized I'd caught his fist.

"I don't need your permission to speak," I snarled while I was looking right into his eyes.

It was a clear act of defiance that broke character, but I wasn't defying my master so I could eek by. He seemed to be surprised by the fact that I dared to block his attack.

"Did I say you could attack my slave?" Sekka well concealed hatred for elves was clearly visible on his face.

The elf that owned the shop seemed surprised by the aggression. Elves despite their cruel disposition toward their slaves were for the most part a peaceful society. That was one of the reasons their population had soared to the point that they needed multiple planets to maintain their population without going to war with each other. Sekka's look clearly showed he was doing some serious murder math. Sekka the slave that had killed many of his fellow slaves just to survive.

It was easy to forget that Sekka had slaughtered many of his own to prove his worth to his master only to be used as a spy, and somehow fall into my grasp toward the end. I planned to set him free. Completely free. Make your own choices choose your own life version of free, but before that I needed a gesture of goodwill that would make the sappy common human against the thought of slaughtering every dragon on earth. Having him become one of my bonded was only a secondary option.

An option I very much wanted him to take. I refocused my attention on Balock. Letting go of the shop owner, and stepping to the side away from the man so we could talk with a little more privacy.

"Your name?" I cocked my head slightly, "It's Balock right?"

Balock looked at me with some surprise still evident in his expression. He was sickly. Although he didn't show it. He was the stubborn type that wouldn't collapse until he was dead. Hell, with muscles like those he might just die standing up.

"Yes my name is Balock," he huffed as he regained his composure, "What of it?"

"How long do you have left?" I straightened my neck slowly.

He looked somewhat confused for a minute before he seemed to realize what I was asking.

"A few months maybe," he huffed.

I looked at Sekka with my head cocked. Sekka wasn't looking at me, but he felt my eyes on him. He was busy arguing with the owner of the shop. I turned my attention back to Balock.

"Less than that I'm afraid," I reached my hand up toward his chin slowly.

He allowed me to gently touch the underside of his bearded chin. One of my talons lengthened to a sharp point while intertwined with his beard. Cutting his flesh just enough to inject poison into him. This particular toxin wasn't lethal, and was slow to take effect. It mimicked the symptoms of core death, and ended with paralysis.

To the untrained eye it would appear as if he were dying. Sekka seemed to be finishing up with his conversation with the elf that owned this particular shop. I'd ignored most of the conversation because I really didn't care how much Sekka haggled this guy.

"If you decide to sell that dwarf I'd be interested in buying him," Sekka had his back to me for the most part, but could clearly sense that I approved of his tactics.

We walked out of there with a good haul of coins, and that shop owner was none the wiser. He had no idea that I'd just poisoned his main money maker. He sell the almost dead Balock to us with little to no hesitation sometime tomorrow. He'd only have his own abusive practices to blame. There was no way a slave like me would be allowed to touch him without some sort of retaliation.

Since he couldn't retaliate at me he would direct that anger elsewhere. When the dwarf was found to be ill in the morning he would think it was his mistake that caused the dwarf's illness. When Balock lost his ability to move entirely he would be led to think that he would not recover from this illness. Then he would try to get whatever money he could to make up for the loss of income he was about to experience from the death of his slave. I one hundred percent expected him to overcharge us.

So did Sekka. Which was why we didn't send our extra income to our base this time around. That dwarf was strong, and had better then decent control of his mana. That kind of skill would make him an excellent teacher for our own homegrown blacksmith back on earth. I didn't know what instinct it was that allowed me to make snap decisions like this, but I really wished it would speak up more often.

Sekka looked at me once we got back to the room.

"Why do you want him so bad?" he sat on the bed.