Slave Woman's Grave Keeper Pt. 04

She walked out into the courtyard and found a young woman sitting in the grass next to a pile of red and yellow leaves fallen from the few trees maintained in the area. She was naked except for some leaves that had been woven into a braid. Aife noticed that her neck was paler than the rest of her skin. She had recently had her slave collar removed as part of the Princess' Slave Emancipation.

"Hello," Aife said as she approached. "Are you Zeigh?"

"Yes," she said turning away from the pile of leaves. "I'm Slave Zeigh."

"But, you're not a slave anymore, right?" Aife asked. "The Princess has emancipated all the slaves that did not go with her."

"Yes, I am free to do whatever I want now," Zeigh said enthusiastically. "But, my first name is Slave."

"Oh, OK. Well, I was hoping to get a look at the cell that Slave Karma used and the women inside said that you might be able to help me..."

"She has disappeared. Are you trying to find her? Are you a detective?" Zeigh asked. "Do you work for the police?"

"Yes, I am trying to find her," Aife responded. "And no, I'm just an independent researcher. I work for the Princess."

"I didn't think that you would work for the police. They probably don't look for missing slaves," Zeigh said, looking wistfully across the courtyard. "Maybe I could be a detective. Now that we are all free, we have to decide on careers so that we can continue to be useful."

"So, you want to be a detective?" Aife asked.

"No. I'm going to be a tree," Zeigh said with a proud smile.

"Hmm. OK." Aife said. "Why don't you tell me about how you are going to be a tree while we go and look at Karma's cell?"

Zeigh stood up and started leading Aife into the Slave Hall. "The Princess organized training for some of the girls. They are learning how to cook or garden or build things. The Princess suggested that I should try my hand at gardening, but the groundskeeper said that all the training slots are filled. Some of the freed pleasure slaves decided that they didn't want to be free so they hired on with Madam Shovair. Some went to the Sampson's manor. I wouldn't want to go to the Sampson's manor. I've seen girls go there and when they come back, they are different. Anyway, the Queen's Witch, Morgana, said that I could be her slave, which would be good, I guess, but... I don't know. Sometimes Karma would go to visit the Queen's Witch and she always had nice things to say about her, but sometimes she didn't seem to realize how long her visit had been which is kind of weird - like, she had been living on a different time metronome or something and her facts would suddenly change. But, the Princess said that we were free to be whatever we want, and I look out the castle windows and there are not many trees out there, so I thought maybe I would be one."

"Mmm hmm," Aife said.

"The other girls thought that it is funny that I would be a tree," Zeigh continued as they walked down a hall lined with heavy wooden doors, each with a small barred window and reinforced with a matrix of black metal bars. "I think that they were jealous that they did not come up with the idea. But, Chelsea said that she would help plant me, although I'm not sure how sincere she was being. This is our room."

"You shared the cell with Slave Karma?" Aife asked.

"Yes. I was her only real friend. I don't think many of the other slaves liked her very much, but I think that they were just jealous because she was really pretty and exotic, with all her body decorations, and, you know, spending so much time with the Princess. But she is really nice. I hope that you find her. We are really good friends. Maybe I could help you." Zeigh pulled on the latch and opened the door. The interior was small and fairly sparse with a narrow cot, a wooden trunk and some sort of box draped in a woven blanket and used as a table or desk. A narrow barred window let in the late afternoon light.

Aife shrugged off her backpack and pulled a out a small plastic container. She opened the container and retrieved a small pair of tweezers. "Did you share this small bed?" Aife asked.

"Oh, no. I sleep over here," Zeigh said pointing at the blanket covered box. She pulled on the blanket at one end revealing a matrix of metal bars forming the door of a small cage.

"It's cozy," Zeigh explained. "Do you have any leads?"

Aife knelt next to the cot looking closely at the blankets, peeling them back one at a time. "Nothing solid," Aife said.

"I know she is out there somewhere," Zeigh said. "I can feel her. We're like sisters you know. Both of us have been here since we were born. That's why we both have the same name, 'Slave'. We were born into our positions."

"Mm hmm..." Aife mumbled as she scratched at a spot on one of the sheets. "Is this her trunk? Can I look in there?"

"Yeah sure. I'm sure Karma wouldn't mind," Zeigh said. "What are you looking for? Clues?"

Aife opened the trunk and found a small bag containing toiletries - a brush, a toothbrush, a small bottle of rubbing alcohol and some cotton swabs... She closed the bag and shoved it into her backpack. "I'm looking for things that would contain a lot of her... essence. Hair samples are good... Is this all her stuff? Where are your things? Have you already packed to leave?"

Zeigh knelt down by the cage and opened the door. "Here is my collar," she said, pulling it through the bars.

"What about clothes? Is that your robe hanging on the hook?" Aife asked.

Zeigh looked slightly confused for a moment. "No. That robe belongs to the Princess. I don't own anything. Slaves don't own things. ...But they let me wear it."

Aife looked at Zeigh for a minute trying to imagine her out in the city buying food, obtaining a residence, getting a job... "How long until you report to the Queen's Witch?" she asked.

Zeigh looked down at her hands. "I think that I am going to be a tree instead. In fact, I should get back outside and gather my leaves. I'm hoping to find a good spot to put down some roots before it gets dark."

"It gets cold at night, this time of the year. How will you stay warm if you are a tree?" Aife asked. She wanted to get a sense of how expansive this slave's fantasy world was.

"That's why I'm gathering leaves," Zeigh explained. "Trees have leaves to keep them warm."

"But don't trees lose their leaves in the winter?" Aife asked. Zeigh's face became contorted with some kind of confusion or conflict. "In the winter... when it's cold," Aife explained.

Zeigh stood still, apparently considering what Aife had said.

Aife was aware of the vocational training program that the Princess had set up for the slaves no longer in her employ, but she was beginning to wonder about how useful it was going to be for someone like Zeigh. Perhaps she was too naive about the world to be able to survive. If she were born into slavery, then she may have been taught all her life that she should only do as she was told and nothing more. Perhaps she would be incapable of making a choice. Maybe slavery actually suited her. Then again, being owned by the Princess was likely a much better life than being owned by others - particularly the Queen's Witch, Morgana. After all Evanescent had implied that sometimes Morgana experimented on slaves and that the results sometimes had lasting effects. She had seen the slave now known only as "Pet" just a few hours ago - a prime example of Morgana's work.

Perhaps Zeigh would have useful information about Karma - information that would be hard to retrieve if Zeigh ended up in Morgana's hands. And so, despite a thread of reluctance, Aife made a quick decision.

"Why don't you help me with my investigation for a few days? You can stay with me. We'll look for Slave Karma, and if you still want to be a tree, I can help find a nice warm location afterwards."

A huge smile blossomed across Zeigh's face. "You... You want me to go with you?"

"Yes," Aife said. "Why don't you gather your things?"

Zeigh looked around the small cell starting to move in one direction then seemingly distracted only to change direction. Finally, she dropped to her knees and pulled open the door to the cage she apparently slept in and pulled out a steel collar with her name engraved in it. Then she stood. "OK, ready."

"Why don't you take the robe," Aife suggested. "It is not common for free people to walk about the city naked."

Zeigh looked nervous suddenly. "But I don't want to steal..."

"Don't worry, Zeigh. I'll pay for it," Aife said.

Zeigh grabbed the robe, though she did not put it on, and the two started walking back through the slave quarters and into the common room. The group of former slaves all stared as they walked by, their conversation suddenly interrupted.

"Wait!" Zeigh said suddenly pointing out towards the courtyard. "Can I bring my leaves?"

"Yes. Of course," Aife said.

Zeigh ran out towards the courtyard and returned shortly using the robe like a bag to hold the leaves that she had collected - one or two dropping as she jogged back over to Aife.

"See you all around," she said to the cluster of former slaves who simply continued to stare as Zeigh and Aife left the room.

When they got to the castle gate, they had to sign out with Rolf, the guard.

"Have a good afternoon, Madam Aife," he said tipping his hat. He then pointed at Zeigh. "But what of this?"

"Zeigh, could you please put on the robe," Aife said. She then turned to the guard. "This is one of the Princess' emancipated slaves - Slave Zeigh, P-417."

Rolf flipped open a book and looked down the page. "Hmm... She's not permitted to leave the castle alone."

"She's coming with me," Aife said with a bit of annoyance. "Besides, she's emancipated now."

"The crown, apparently, feels she is not competent enough to leave..." Rolf and Aife looked at Zeigh who had gotten the robe on now but was holding her collection of leaves using the front of her robe pulled up like a basket, totally exposing her naked body from the waist down to her bare feet - her collar still dangling from a hand. "As you have been approved by the Princess to have borrowing rights, Madam Aife, I can loan her to you, but you'll need to bring her back in the same condition she is in now."

"She's a free woman!" Aife said. "The Princess emancipated all of her slaves."

"She's not free until she gets her papers," Rolf explained, beginning to raise his voice a little. "She needs identification, a citizen number, all sorts of things to be a free woman. Until then, she must still be handled as a slave."

"Fine! When will she be issued papers?" Aife asked. "I thought the Princess took care of all this..."

"Of course the Princess did, but not for incompetents," Rolf pointed at Zeigh who was standing quietly listening. "Incompetents like this one."

"Who determines an ex-slave's competency?" Aife asked, determined to come up with a different tack for extricating Zeigh from this bureaucracy that seemed to oppress her as much as her chains had. On some level she was not sure why she was pushing so hard to get Zeigh out, but she was simply angered by Gate Guard Rolf and his attitude.

"You can bring that up with the Queen's Witch Morgana," Rolf explained turning away. "Until then she needs to wear her collar and a castle leash."

"The Queen's Witch?" Aife said making fists with her hands.

"I don't mind being on your leash," Zeigh said to Aife. There was a clicking sound.

Aife spun back around to Zeigh. "Don't do that!" Zeigh had wrapped her collar around her neck and closed the locking mechanism. All her leaves had spilled out across the ground. "I don't have a key!"

"It's OK," Zeigh said. "I was feeling kind of naked without it."

"Oh, Holy Mother!" Aife said. She turned back to Rolf who was holding a leash out to her - a smug smile on his face.

Aife snatched the leash and clipped the end on Zeigh's collar handing the leash handle for Zeigh to hold. Then she bent over and began to rake all the fallen leaves into her backpack.

"Let's go, Zeigh," she said and the two walked through the gate. "I'm sorry, Zeigh, but it just seems that if the Princess emancipated you then we shouldn't have to deal with all this bullshit."

Aife turned to look at Zeigh, but she wasn't there. She looked back at the gate. Zeigh was standing with her eyes wide, filled with terror - her body pressed back against the brick column of the gate house. Aife spun around with fists raised making preparations for a fight, certain that Zeigh's fear was based on some sort of immediate threat bearing down on the two of them. But there was no impending danger. Just the street leading away from the castle gate, some vendors and pedestrians moving from one place to another. Aife lowered her fists and turned back to Zeigh who hadn't moved. "What?! What's wrong?"

"I... I've never been outside of the castle," Zeigh said, still frozen against the wall.

"Oh, well it's basically the same on the outside as it is on the inside, although it smells a little worse. So, come on!"

"Maybe..." Zeigh began to hold out the handle to her leash. "Maybe you could keep this end?"

"Oh, Holy Mother!" Aife stepped back to Zeigh and grabbed the end of the leash from Zeigh's hand. "Let's go..."