Awake again

When I woke my two of my brothers were in the room with me. As well as the messenger that had been watching me since I got to the capital. I sat up carefully, my head wasn't my friend right now but it wasn't nearly as bad as the last time. The messenger handed me a cup of that strange green liquid. I frowned at it before downing the drink again. I wasn't sure the cure was worth the price but I didn't purge the liquid.

"Taste doesn't get better, but it helps with burnout." The messenger took the cup from me and set it on a table by the door. This room was big and well furnished. There was even a window that had panes of glass in it. I could see the tower and a good part of the city. I could see the tower. I looked back at the messenger. "This is the main house. The master's room of the main house actually."

"The woman the matriarch sends to command the house will be annoyed, I think."

My brothers laughed, the messenger did not, "Your matriarch is not in a state of mind conducive to managing a house at the moment. Your eldest sister has requested a meeting with you, but I would put her off for a day at least while you make sure, you are back to yourself."

"No, tell my sister I will talk to her this afternoon." My head was already starting to feel better and if my sister wanted to talk with me that badly it had to affect the house. The messenger raised an eyebrow at me but I felt his flames flicker like they did when he was talking to someone.

His expression changed to surprise, "She will be here by then."

I smiled, "It surprises you she can see past the end of her nose." I noticed that I wasn't dressed and wondered who had risked trying to take my armor off. I was sitting up on the bed and the blankets were nice. What a change from when I was first picked up.

"Not her so much. The house of Estro is on thin ice with our lord."

"I guessed it would be. What about the priesthood?"

The messenger's eyes narrowed. "20 were ousted from the group."

"The septon is still alive?"

"Our lord cleared him but he got a private meeting. Most men don't walk away from that unchanged."

I shuttered and my brothers smiled. "Right, I am guessing you are waiting for something specific?"

"Not really, you are something new, you aren't a priest, and you aren't what your brothers are. For now I am just watching."

"For yourself, or as an instrument still?"

"The second, but the first makes me nicer to be around, I think. You can take some time and recover."

"That would be a first." I looked at the brother, who was sitting to the right of the door. "Might as well tell me what you want to, he isn't going to give us time alone." I really should learn the man's name but it never seemed important. Names are annoying.

"You should at least get dressed and find food before we get into it."

I stretched and parts of my back popped, I had noticed that my brothers had on shirts and pants. The clothes even looked clean. "You are just jealous."

The bigger men snorted. "At least I know mine works, brother."

I snorted and stood. The messenger looked ready to catch me but the room wasn't spinning that much. It really wasn't as bad as last time. There were a couple of dressers, another table, this one had a pitcher and a mirror, and there was an open door that looked like it led to a closet. I looked at the mirror first. I had seen myself reflected in pools of water before but this was much better. My hair had gotten long but it wasn't wild. I had a patchy beard at best. I had been too lost in thought before the fight to pay much attention to the wild person I had been physically turning into. I was still small and pale and the grey eyes looking back at me were unsettling.

I opened the draw of the dresser not expecting to find anything inside. I raised an eyebrow there was a folded outfit stacked in the drawer. Three outfits really. I picked up the first one. It was of the same material as the priest's robes but this cloth was colored. I considered my reflection again. My brothers didn't seem to be in a hurry.

I ran my hand over my chin, that wasn't going to work, but I didn't know where my knife might be right now. I considered what I had done in the arena and I thought I could do something with more control. I pictured what I wanted in my mind and then ran my hands over my face again. The messenger started to say something but stopped as the hair hit the table. I stopped what I was doing and felt my chin again. It was almost smooth, it felt much nicer, it was a little warm in the room. I used a little power to pick up the hair. I didn't want to burn it but I couldn't think of anything to do with it so I left it in a pile on the table.

Then I pulled on the clothes. The room seemed to want to turn around some more and I let it while I took another one of the chairs in the room, "You shouldn't do anything like that until the motion sickness lessens."

"I will avoid the really stressful things, unless that was an order of course."

The messenger sighed, "It wasn't. If you suffer burnout though, you will be less interesting."

"At this point maybe not. Not unless I get myself killed." I looked at my brothers, "He doesn't seem worried but how much time do I currently have?"

"A year, it seems like. It is hard to get better information than that. The women have been acting like a kicked hive since the fight. Even my normal contacts won't even see me. All I can find out is that there are more terms to that fight then our lord had felt necessary to share."

I leaned back, "That is a shame. How long was I out this time?"

"Two days."

"If your contacts are turning you away, who is getting information?"

"One of Mato's unit has a girl that likes him enough to speak with him when he makes the trip back to the house. So far the priests will walk with us so we can travel between the cities, unmolested. Speaking is all she would do according to him."

I frowned that was interesting. It had only been two days though, it might be that she was still worried about her position if the matriarch returned. We had to be at the top of her who needs to die list right now. "Is there a count yet?"

"Not on litters yet. There are 90 collared slaves though." So if they get five from the dead, we would be looking at a victory of 330. With ten victors that is still 33 each, almost three years. Then there is also the 9 slaves each which would be much closer to 5.5 when they were drained, that would be at least an extra 4 years each. The slaves cannot fight in the arena again, but they can do other work of value. So they might earn more.

It had been a long time since the rules on collared slaves had been used and now there were 90 of them. Oh, that is right I won't have 9 slaves, 4 would be taken for the houses whose fighters I had killed before they entered the ring. "Have they been divided then?"

"Not yet, we still have time and some of the other houses involved are finding issues with the priesthood reduced. Also only about 2 of the slaves are awake, I think your spell worked better then you had planned. Seems Estro wasn't the only house taking liberties that weren't really granted to them."

"What does that mean?"

"Our beloved sister spoke to the matriarchs of quite a few houses. She of course traded the slaves as ordered for you, but then she traded them back for less then .1 each. Which seems to point to an undisclosed agreement of the sort men have no reason to know about."

"That is a dangerous game to play." Estro was already on thin ice, would the eldest put the house at risk by not submitting to our lord, or was it something else?

"Maybe, I have no way of judging, but as long as the lord is satisfied, it was a good trade."

I shrugged, "The lord is satisfied as long as blood flows. Our lord has more care then that, thank goodness. Anything else I should know before finding food?"

"I am sure there is but I don't know it. You always seem to make connections that seem like foolishness to me."

"I just have a different point of view." I stood and we left, I needed food and nature wasn't going to patent with me too much longer either.