Amber's Enchantment Ch. 05

House Hustrid, the only slave house that knew of this race, called Fotons, had even developed a special slave collar that was enchanted to change coloration as his body did. He had been rented to Gastrin to follow Melen and discover just where she was getting the unusual products from. A week had passed since he'd been placed in the caverns, and now that time was bearing fruit.

The slave stood motionless against the wall, undetectable by anything able to see colors, as the strange trader greeted Melen.

"Did the bloodwine we provided satisfy your needs?" the creature asked in its strange whispering voice.

"Oh yes, it was very good. Can you provide more?"

"Certainly we can give more, for a price."

"I assume the usual copper ingots will be sufficient?" Melen asked, the glee in her voice indisguisable.

"Yes, copper ingots are required. We do have 100 cases available in seven days."

The slave cocked his head at the strange mixture of tenses from the creature. He thought he detected a slight shift in the strange creature's stance, but it wasn't enough to cause him alarm. The two talked further about future trades, with the strange trader continuing to speak in that strange mixed tense. When Melen left, the slave stayed to watch where the trader would go. He was shocked when it turned towards him and seemed to raise a hand holding a strange device that both Melen and Vesti would have recognized. A spark jumped from the end of the device to the slave and he felt a surge of pain, much like an orgasm gone too long. He tried to move away, but the spark moved with him until he collapsed. The device seemed to vanish and the creature followed it to that nowhere place it didn't exist in.

If a wizard had been there, he would have seen the same thing Vesti had seen with Amber; all the mana seemed to be drained from the slave's body. Or rather, nearly all. The strange creature had never encountered a Destran slave collar before, and was unaware of the life protecting function of the collar. It had merely kept the weapon on the slave until it could no longer see mana in him. What it didn't know was that there was still a spark of mana there, protected by the collar; just small enough to escape the creature's notice. Two days later, the slave would awaken, weak and confused, but able to make his way to the hidden communication stone at a remote wall of the cavern complex.

*****

Silen poured a glass of wine for Vesti to have with his dinner. The wizard had been working hard and she wanted to make the little time he had free as enjoyable as possible. With his meal ready, she walked to his workroom and stood silently waiting for him to finish what he was in the middle of.

"Master, dinner is ready," she called out when he set the instrument he was working with down.

"Thank you, Silen," he answered, stretching stiff muscles as he stood.

"I thought you might like some wine with dinner, Master. It's a new one from a bottle Lady Lustren had sent over."

"That sounds wonderful, Silen." The sight of her naked body reminded him that he'd done without her other services for several days. His smile of anticipation faded, however, when he entered the room and saw his meal laid out. Horror crawled into the light on his face as he stared at the bottle of wine she's left sitting on the table.

"Master," she asked, her voice and expression filled with concern.

"There's nothing there," he whispered to himself. Looking at the bottle of wine and the black void in the mana around it. Vesti knew he wasn't the most sensitive mage for seeing mana in the world around him. Frequently, low mana objects did not register in his sight; they seemed to be transparent mana-wise. It was much like he imagined those without the spark would see the world, in part. This bottle of wine, and the wine in his glass, were black; a void in the mana around him. It wasn't that he couldn't see their mana; there was no mana to be seen.

"Master, did I do something wrong?" Silen asked, her voice trembling at the thought that she had failed him so badly as to horrify her Master.

Vesti shook his head. "No, Silen, it's nothing you did." He sighed and turned towards her. "Take the bottle and glass to my workshop. Be very careful to put them on the unused table, not close to anything else. Then, get me something stronger than wine; much stronger.

*

Thanks to Sugaro for the wonderful editing work. Please remember that I love to hear from my readers with any thoughts or comments about my writing.