"I need to practice my seeking," Ro Vasuva announced. It sounded like an announcement, anyway, but in fact it was more a statement made with conviction. It might also have been something of a warning to anyone within earshot. If they did not want to take part in his seeking practice, they should probably absent themselves before he took notice of them.

Unfortunately Ben Fëa was not paying attention when Ro Vasuva made his proclamation, and so he did not have the opportunity to get out of dodge, as it were, and escape his new temporary role as Ro Vasuva's quarry. He had been thinking about his sister. His beautiful dark sister with the blue and black markings on her coat, both curving and jagged, rather like herself. He had actually been trying to come up with the best way to draw a comparison between Kidogo'Mwanamizi's coat and her self, as a whole.

"Today is definitely your lucky day, slave," Ro Vasuva said to the white lion with the red mane. He knew the lion was a slave, despite his red markings, by the way he carried himself. He was subservient, rather than obedient, and if there was any pride in him, Ro Vasuva certainly did not see it, and he had been training to see people's inner selves, the better to see if they have demons within them.

Ben Fëa looked up when he was addressed, the blankness of his turned-inward gaze vanishing as he focused on the dark lion addressing him. Then his gaze turned hard, somewhere between stubborn and stoic. As a slave, he had no right to protest any treatment he might receive, or any ill that might befall him at the claws of a free demon, but that did not mean he looked forward to being tormented. Unless it was by his beloved sister, of course. She could do whatever she wished with him. He wished she would do more.

"Do you know why today is your lucky day?" Ro Vasuva asked, leaving a pause for the slave to attempt an answer. No doubt he would say something boring and predictable, like it was his lucky day because he was able to be of use to a demon like Ro Vasuva, which was not untrue, but it was not the answer Ro Vasuva was looking for, either.

Having been a slave all his life, thanks to his parents' mercy in sparing his life by not exiling or killing him, Ben Fëa knew that he was now trapped, and that no matter what answer he gave, it would not be the correct one. Rather than play this stupid losing game, guessing wrong over and over again, he just shook his head without saying anything. Technically, he was answering the question he had been asked. He just wasn't answering the question that had been implied by that question.

"Go ahead. Take a guess," Ro Vasuva insisted, leaning in close enough that he could turn his head and his teeth would snap shut over the pale flesh of Ben Fëa's ear. He was already growing frustrated with this slave's refusal to play along. "If you guess correctly, I might think about going easy on you."

It would not be the first time Ben Fëa had his ear savaged, but he did not look forward to a repeat experience. Besides, scars on a free demon showed their strength and ferocity. Scars on a slave showed that they had been found wanting. He did not want his sister to think that he was in any way wanting. He was already a slave, and that was bad enough.

"I am fortunate to be able to be of use to a demon such as yourself," Ben Fëa ventured, knowing that his answer would be wrong, and that there would be a punishment for being wrong. He hoped it would not be worse than the punishment he would have earned had he remained silent.

"That is a good guess, slave, but it happens to be wrong," Ro Vasuva replied, sticking to the script that the pair had tacitly agreed to follow. His paw flashed forward and drew blood from the slave's left foreleg. "Would you care to guess again?"

"Please tell me," Ben Fëa asked, not quite able to keep hidden his resentment for his role in this farcical interrogation. It occurred to him that they had not even gotten to the part where the demon practiced his seeking yet. That would be something to look forward to, then.

"Morifaer, you're pathetic," Ro Vasuva spat condescendingly. "But I suppose that really just serves to illustrate why today is your lucky day. Today, you pale worm of a creature, you get to pretend that you contain a demon within your miserable person, you lucky thing, you."

Ben Fëa regarded the demon warily.

"I don't know how to do that," he said carefully, hoping that he would get some established parameters to work with, rather than finding out the hard way that he had broken a rule he didn't know existed. He already knew that this game of pretend would have unspoken limits. He might pretend to have a demon, but only insofar as it was convenient for the demon talking to him to allow it. He would not be permitted to stand up for himself, or defend himself. In fact, he could not think of a way that this would really work out so that he pretended to have a demon inside him. He might as well pretend to be some sort of prey, since he guessed that was how this would eventually turn out.

"No, I suppose you wouldn't," Ro Vasuva acknowledged. "Don't worry. Since I have to practice seeking, you aren't supposed to know that you have a demon in you anyway. We're going to pretend that I've seen your demon, and now I have to bring it out to prove to you it's there. Doesn't that sound like it will be fun?"

Ro Vasuva smiled, and his smile was a sinister seduction. Ben Fëa swallowed silently. This was much, much worse than he had imagined it would be. This would not be a hunt where he was the quarry. This would be torture. He was almost certain of it. And yet, because it was expected of him, he made himself speak the words he was supposed to say.

"Yes. Lots and lots of fun. Thank you for letting me be a part of it."

This would indeed be fun. At least for one of them.

Word Count: 1,094