44 Spring - 516 AV - Kenash
Where was he from? That was a trickier question. So she chose to answer it the easiest way she knew.
"Don't know. No where I have been."
Again no lie, and likely what Valerius expected from her. He continued on with the precise steps needed to keep her freedom. Thirty days was many days. She'd not been here nearly that long. Not even one hand of days let alone six. She looked briefly worried for a moment when he mentioned the reading and writing.
"Enough."
It would need to be enough. She would figure it out. She would sound the words out if she needed to. One finger slowly tracing it's way along the form until it was done and dusted.
She nodded to show her understanding when he stressed that she should not cover the mark. Given the choice she'd just as rather not cover anything, so that probably wouldn't be a problem. She still didn't like the idea of getting the mark. It was a brand. They said it marked you as free, but what sort of place branded the free? In Sunberth the most brands had been in the Slave Market, and always on the slaves. You did not see those who were free and could choose for themselves getting burning hot metal pushed into their flesh. It seemed to her, then, that this was a sort of.. of civilized half slavery. You were marking yourself for all to see, agreeing to follow rules and instructions, less than those who were not marked. So he could look down on her bond all he liked, but it seemed to her that Valerius of the Nitrozian family of Ravok had marked himself as a slave even while he sat here thinking he had not.
But then what did she know? She was only a Kelvic, not even three yet.
"I thought that to have a mark on the face was to be a slave. But I see those with marks whipping others, giving orders, and I saw a man with no mark dragged away. Maybe the unmarked man was here more than thirty days but, those I see leaving the big houses, they have no mark, so how are they told from those who just do not have marks but perhaps should?
Sunberth had an active slave trade true enough, but it didn't have nearly the numbers or the slave culture. With is anarchistic leanings, while it was a good place to buy or sell slaves, no one chased or looked to hard if one ran. If a slave killed his Master in Sunberth, well good for him. He was practically a proper citizen then. There was not the more complicated tiers of slavery as could be found in Kenash, where a slave might be entrusted by their Master to oversee and act as foreman of other slaves.
