Welcome to Gaia! ::

Vania sighed to herself as she smoothed out the folds on her dress. She severely hated Feretris, hated everything about it. It was an ugly nation, she concluded one evening. The walls, floors, rooms, everything was earthy and crude compared to what she was use to in Feretris. As she traced a small crack on the floor with her toe, she recalled the cool, smooth feeling of white marble that seemed to glow with its own light when the sun's rays drifted onto it. She recalled the footsteps of her soft slippers ring through the hallway as she jogged down it to rush off to training, or dinner, or -

Vania jolted from her reminiscing when she heard a knock from the wooden door. Willing the strength of her dragon's magic, she concealed herself with the guise of her mistress form. Her pale blond hair shifted and rippled as it shifted into a dark brown hue. Her skin darkened and her facial features shifted slightly, making her appear as one of pure Feretris Blood.

Vania called out, letting her voice be commanding and regal. "Enter."

'Now then, Vania, what do we have hear?'

Vania laughed mentally as her draconian counterpart peeped in. 'I have no idea, Smargadus. Maybe it is a friend? Maybe a slave. Maybe a mistress.' Her last word was mentally spat, and received a deep laugh in return.

'We'll see, won't we?'

Vania watched the slave for a moment. Fable? Why would she have sent him here? Vania knew that Fable would have sent a slave to her if it was an emergency. 'Hmm . . . he does have blue eyes, paler skin, and is that nose Cedric's?'

'I wouldn't know, Vania. I haven't met Cedric yet.'

'Right . . . right.'

Vania smiled stiffly to the slave boy, nodding. "My bed felt wobbly and unstable. Also, my dresser's drawers aren't moving as smooth as I'd hoped. I would appreciate it greatly if you could fix it."

Vania nodded, letting the boy do his job as she walked toward her amoire, pulling out a small bottle. Holding two glasses, she poured the transparent, slightly azure liquid into each glass. She did so carefully, and when the glasses were about half-way filled she corked the bottle and put it away. This has to work, Vania thought privately to herself.

'Oooh . . . are you going to make him drink it? Are 'ya? Huh? Huh?'

'Shh, I need to make sure he would trust me enough.'

Vania smiled warmly to the slave boy, holding one crystal glass in each hand. Please don't let him gag, please . . .

Vania watched him carefully as he drank the fluid. Her face brightened as he consumed it without a fit. Mentally, she cheered and rooted. She found a servant with a possibility of a bond! 'Smargadus! Didja see?'

'Yes, I saw. But I am starting to think that you are over-reacting. The drink isn't a certain test, ninety-something percent sure.'

'Yes, but he also has blue eyes and blond hair! And he is pale-skinned. Well, paler than the rest. I am certain that he is one of us!'

'Don't get your hopes up. It would take weeks of planning and plenty of effort to ship out this slave to Tok. We have to make sure that he is your nephew. After all, if he wasn't, then you wasted a lot of time.'

'Now don't be pessimistic. This child has the looks, passed the test, and according to the history of this place, is in the same estate that Cedric once was. This is splendid!'

Vania showed no expression of the estatic conversation in her mind. She just smiled at the slave boy. Gesturing toward her bed, she spoke in a softer, more melodic voice than earlier. "Please, do sit down. You worked hard, and you appear to be tired." Actually, she didn't really care about his fatigue; she was just too happy to have found him. "Besides, I can ensure that the other mistresses know that you are with me. You will not be punished."

Vania sat on the bed, smoothing out the wrinkles in her orange dress. The dragon's magic worked a little harder, making Vania seem more and more beautiful. However, this beauty radiated from within her, not just her fancy dress and hair. It was a beauty of comfort and compassion, a beauty of friendship. The feeling was hard to explain, but the dragon tried to imprint compassion and kindness into the slave, just to get a move on.

If only I was there in the flesh, thought the dragon. Channeling magic through his human counterpart is hardly as easy as just performing from dragon to victim - err, target. It took less energy, but he had to trust his mortal.

Vania smiled at him, but willed her dragon to decrease the magical flow. 'He can't be too influenced too fast. It would be noticeable.'

'Right, right. Forgot about that.' The dragon grumbled mentally before lowering the mysticism reluctantly. He could hardly use his full magical power on a human since their fragile minds were too sensitive. Too much power and something bad could happen.

"Please, make yourself comfortable. Tell me about yourself, starting with your name." Her words were soft, but held the firmness of someone in charge. They sounded like an odd blend between a request and an order; a formal and highly encouraged suggestion. The magic helped ease her words into his mind, making her seem more and more friendly and kind instead of commanding and rude.

"I mean not to cause you harm, young one." She said these words slowly, her eyes watching his carefully. Yes, she thought, Those eyes are most certainly Tok blue.

Vania smiled warmly at Sverrir. Her mind raced with possible conversation choices, but her dragon merely listened. He thought this was humerous.

"Mmm, Sverrir? A beautiful name." Vania looked at her lap, mentally cursing herself for that horribly cheesy line. Of course, she seemed completely genuine in her comment. To her, Sverrir wasn't that pretty. But it was better than Grum or Jorth, that is for sure.

'"Beautiful name"? Vania, seriously, think before you speak.'

'Sush, Smargadus.'

Vania looked back up at Sverrir. She started to feel doubts creep into her mind, but she shrugged them off. This was not the time to start doubting oneself. "Is that all you do here, Sverrir? You are of an exotic appearance, I'd expect some women would want you as a bed warmer."

'Well, that is interesting,' Smargadus commented before laughing.

'What is it?' Vania did not want games at the moment.

'I think he likes you. You know, likes likes you.'

Vania pondered as she kept up her pleasant demeanor. "I do hope your punishment didn't hurt too much Sverrir. I am sure you didn't deserve such brutality." She was honest, especially about a kinsmen. She noted how the women in this . . . slavery pit overreacted at any sign of imperfection. It was horrible and inhumane.

"Maybe a medic could tend to those scars, possibly even make them smaller. There are methods." Vania tilted her head as she looked at them. She had seen worse scars before, especially in her training. But to see them on her nephew . . .

'Keep your head, Vania. We do not want to blow our cover.'

She mentally nodded before getting up from the bedside. She walked over to a table where she grabbed a silk-like crimson blanket. Wrapping it around her shoulders, she sat next to Sverrir again. He was an odd one - and she bluffed too much to know that he was trying to deceive her. He was good, but she had received formal training and mystical aid. She did her best to not let him know that she knew, though.

"Sverrir, have any of the mistresses taken to bed with you?"

Vania looked at the boy with a sidelong glance. Pondering, she shook her head. "No, I do not intent to take you to bed with me. In fact, I do not intent on going to bed for quite a bit more. I am full of energy."

She smiled slightly as she peered even more at him. He was definitely hiding something, but she could not quite tell what it was. It was frustrating her slightly as she tried to figure it out.

'Vania, think about it.' Smargadus suggested with a slight gloating tone in his voice.

'You know what it is?'

'I have a guess.'

Vania mentally frowned at him. He wasn't being helpful, but Sverrir was definitely concealing an important factor from her. Normally, she'd be able to discern the secret based on body language and tone of voice, but she had begun to grow an emotional attachment to the boy. She tried to convince herself that the emotion was helping him conceal his secret -

It suddenly hit her. Sverrir has been acting like a dullard the entire time she's seen him except for a few moments of intellectual clarity. He also had been able to deceive Vania for so long. It takes a sense of self-control and mental fortitude to consistently weave such an illusion. That very nature has been suppressed during the encounter - it would qualify quite well as a possible candidate for secrecy. Mentally cheering herself for what she realize, Vania stretched to loosen herself.

'He must be smarter than he looks, and that must be what he is hiding,' conversed Vania. 'Clever of him to hide it so well.'

'Intellect? I thought he was hiding something else.'

Vania mentally tilted her head at Smargadus. 'What did you think it was?'

'Something along the lines of suppressed homosexuality.'

Vania laughed before she could help it, then she realized that Smargadus might be serious. Or he might be joking. She could rarely honestly tell.