After a few weeks of getting ready, Emily was happy to finally be heading back to her world. Although, she knew that it was pretty much going to be a short stay, even though she wasn't going to be crossing back to her own world. She was merely going to be waiting on the bicorn's world until someone who could get a message to Heathcliff that she was there appeared.
She wasn't sure how long it'd take but she was at least fairly confident that it wouldn't take that much time. At least not in regards to how long the entire trip would take. Even though she estimated that it would take about two or three months to return to the entrance of the unicorn's forest, she was confident that the duchess wouldn't even be aware that such a delay had occurred.
Still, she was getting ahead of herself. In that it wasn't like she had already travelled there. The preparations had finally be completed and she was about to spend her last night in the duchess' home.
"Are you sure we'll be okay?" Eddra asked, clearly uneasy with being left behind without Emily.
"Don't worry," Emily assured the woman. "I'll be back soon enough. Just make sure that you keep an eye on Nick for me, okay?"
Eddra nodded before she walked away. Emily assumed it was back to the suite where the young woman spent most of her time. Though, Emily couldn't really tell what she thought of Nick. Half the time they seemed to ignore each other, the other half they seemed more inclined to consider the other as something to avoid.
Not that Emily could be sure if there was a reason for that either.
After Nick had refused to wear the uniform, Emily had left him in the bedroom of the suite, refusing to return the clothing he'd been wearing before that. Then, even with the coaxing of some of the other male servants here, which seemed to have the equivalent position that Emily was used to considering as 'maids,' it took two days before Nick was willing to put the uniform on. Although, Emily didn't hold any illusions that he wouldn't change out of it the moment he saw clothing that would fit him, if not the clothing that he had been wearing before Emily had tricked him.
While he was still willing to talk to her, Emily could tell that he wasn't happy with her. That once this was over, she should probably avoid him when possible. Otherwise she could see him doing something to her that could potentially be rather humiliating for her.
Yet, at the same time, she consoled herself with the fact that Nick tended to be rather full of himself. Even now he tended to treat others like they should be grateful that they could be in his presence.
Or at least that's how Emily saw it.
"Something on your mind?" one of the duchess' soldiers that was to escort Emily asked.
Emily shook her head. "Nothing really important. Just worried about my friend and how he'll act while I'm gone," she said, hoping that Nick would behave himself, even though she'd never really seen anything from him that would indicate that he actually might.
"I'm just glad I don't have to deal with him anymore," the soldier remarked.
"Emily! There you are!" Nick called out, startling her and the soldier she'd been talking to. "You're going to leave without saying anything?"
"I just haven't said anything yet," Emily protested. "I'll be leaving tomorrow, but the duchess has assured me that you'll be able to stay in that same suite for as long as you want, while I'm gone."
Nick rolled his eyes. "Yeah, and if I move out, they'll probably put me either back in that cell or in with the other servants. Not something I'm interested in doing," he retorted. "I got enough problems wearing this thing."
Emily couldn't help but smile, despite herself, as she listened to Nick's rant. He wasn't happy, that much was easy enough to tell, but she still wondered how much this would get him to change some of the attitudes he had. Even though she wasn't really expecting it to work that well.
"Don't worry," Emily said. "I'm sure the duchess won't let me stay back on earth, so I'll be heading back as soon as we finish."
Nick looked at Emily with a surprised expression. "You're going back to Earth?"
Emily nodded. "Yes. I'll be either telling Heathcliff about the duchess' offer or merely acting as a translator for whoever will be," Emily answered. "It's not going to be a pleasure trip."
"Anything away from here would be a pleasure trip in comparison."
Emily wasn't going to argue. Without the luxury she was able to enjoy, she was confident that she'd probably feel the same way as Nick did. Not that there was anything else that she would have been able to do about it. Even with her magic.
"So, remember to learn the language here while I'm gone," Emily said, recognizing that Nick would likely consider that statement twisting the dagger her leaving had stuck in him.
"Do I really have a choice?" he asked dryly.
Emily merely smiled in return. "Of course you have a choice. I mean, you've been here for how long and you still haven't even started learning some of the basic things about this world. Such as what the local language is."
Nick rolled his eyes. "It's not like it'll be a life skill that'll follow me wherever I go."
Emily shrugged. "You never know. Maybe the language here will get a foothold on Earth when everything's done."
"Whatever," Nick said, looking away, clearly disinterested.
"Well, I'll be leaving in the morning. Though, it'll probably be after they serve breakfast here," Emily said, hoping that Nick wouldn't want to part with them at odds like this.
"Why aren't you taking me along with you?" Nick asked, and with his tone, Emily could tell that this was the main reason he was so annoyed with her at that particular moment.
"Well, the duchess hasn't told me I could, and I didn't think it was a good idea to ask for too much right now," Emily answered honestly.
Although, while her statement had been honest, she didn't mention that she probably would have been able to get the duchess to allow Nick to join her without much trouble. She just didn't really feel like going through the hassle of having Nick accompany her the way there, as she was confident that doing so wouldn't be 'asking too much' in the first place. Especially with how he was acting already. Not that he needed to know that.
Not to mention that he'd change into the clothing that was in his pack that they'd left in the world they'd been in before they had come to this one. As Emily was confident that he knew right where his pack was.
Which wouldn't help her get across the point that she was hoping he might eventually understand about how his attitude wasn't being very helpful to him on this world. That he was the one making things more difficult for himself than they really needed to be.
Of course, a large part of that could easily be from the fact that she didn't really get along very well with him. While she did consider him a friend, it was more like they were on friendly terms and it was still nice to know someone that she'd known from Earth was nearby. If only to help her talk about things from Earth when she got a little homesick.
However, as she thought about it, she wondered if maybe on the next trip to Earth that she took, that the duchess might allow Nick to go, and even let him stay on Earth. That way she wouldn't have to deal with the headache he'd been causing her. Even if she didn't have anyone from Earth to talk to for at least a long while.
Charlie yawned as she woke up. She hadn't woken up because she wasn't tired, but rather because the door to the cell, or pen as she'd started thinking of it as, was opened. The rusty doors squealing so loudly it was actually worse than fingernails on a chalkboard.
Among the things that she hated most making her wake up, that definitely had to be the worst. The sound of the metal screaming made her wish for her parents waking her up because she was oversleeping again and was in danger of being late for school.
She wouldn't have been sure how much time had gone by, since there wasn't any way to tell when the sun was actually up or not in this room, if she wasn't able to look into the minds of the people on the outside of the pen. She'd been here since they'd arrived, when one of the other people in the caged wagon had been discovered to have had the spotted plague, which Charlie quickly remedied.
Although, she didn't expect them to believe that it had been taken care of, she still hadn't expected to have had to wait an entire month before they decided they could leave.
Which had left her rather bored. There was only so much peering into the minds of the people who were working in the caravan that had brought her and the other people who were to be sold as slaves with her, so after a while, she even lost interest in getting to know them, without any of them realizing it as well.
There wasn't anything that was available for her to pass the time, as she didn't risk unsealing her voice which meant she couldn't even talk to anyone, so in the end she had to start counting things. Which sounded better than it is. It sounded like it would be something that she could do to help the time go by faster, but in the end, it seemed to make the time go even slower.
The fact that the door was opened for the first time since she'd been put in there was actually a sign of hope for Charlie. She hoped that it meant that she'd be able to continue on to whatever destination they were heading for. She could only wonder what kind of chances she'd be able to have in order to escape from this predicament she'd been stuck in.
She watched as the others were ushered out and back into the caged wagon. Charlie had a momentary thought of either trying to resist or use her magic to make herself invisible, quickly dismissed the idea. While it sounded good, she had a feeling that they had either done a head count or at least had someone keeping an eye on them if the event someone tried something akin to that.
So, she obediently followed the others, letting the others think she was merely one of the sheep, nothing to take note of. Despite the stir she'd created when she'd first cured those who had the spotted plague their first day there.
While she would have like to have kept a low profile, she didn't want to let others die if she could have done something about it. If she had let them die just so she could have kept her anonymity, she wasn't certain that she would then have wanted to survive this ordeal.
Especially with how she was aware that the plague was expected to spread through those in the cage, almost like a wildfire. Which would leave everyone in there dead. Aside from Charlie, because of how the fact that she'd had the plague before had made her likely immune.
At least from what she had learned from the people around her.
Which really wasn't something she liked spending much time doing. Not with some of the thoughts that she picked up on that made her feel the need to take a bath, even though they hadn't done anything like that for any of those they were keeping as slaves.
She hoped that she'd be able to clean herself at some point, with how grody she felt. Even her hands felt like they had a film of something on them that she wished she could scrape off. Of course, she might as well wish that she'd be provided any kind of clothing to wear for all that they seemed inclined to keep them clean. Not that she'd been getting used to being constantly naked, either.
Despite all of that, the people who were ushering them into the cage didn't even provide any water, even to drink. All that they got was some when they were given food each day. Which was at least three times in the day, most days.
Since they weren't outside, Charlie wasn't too worried. Especially since she could always use her magic if she felt like she really needed more water to drink. However, she hadn't felt that need and she really didn't want to risk using her magic in a way that her having the ability to use magic could be discovered.
Experiencing a little discomfort was a small price to pay for to keep that knowledge. Besides, she had a feeling that these people wanted to keep them alive. As looking at it from what Charlie could only assume might be the point of view whoever was in charge of the caravan was that if any of them died, that meant they wouldn't be able to get any money for them that they had expected.
The thinking took a little bit of a dark route, but Charlie was at least confident that it would hold, no matter what else might occur.
When everyone who had been in the pen had entered the caged wagon, the door to the cage was closed and locked. When that was accomplished, Charlie at least was able to entertain herself by watching the flurry of activity as it was clear they were getting ready to leave.
Which also meant that they were getting ready to head out to wherever they had originally been heading. A place that Charlie hoped wasn't as vigilant as this caravan had been in regards to keeping her from being able to escape.
_
Despite her hopes, Charlie felt rather disappointed that she didn't get 'sold' here. When they'd unloaded everyone else at the place that Charlie could only assume was a slave auction, she had been stopped from following them.
Naturally she'd been surprised, but so had the people that seemed to work at the auction. There was a flurry of conversation as Charlie waited patiently at the door, even as it was being locked.
While Charlie could easily learn their names with her magic, she really didn't feel like going to the trouble to do that. She really didn't care what their names were and wasn't interested at all in what they might be.
"You said that you'd have the entire wagon for us to sell," the woman who seemed to be in charge told the caravan people.
"Yes, we did," she replied. "However, that was from what we'd picked up at Pleonths. This one we picked up on our way here, so she's merely extra."
"Then why not throw her in here to see what you can get for her? I'm sure she'd be a good pleasure slave. She at least has a face for that."
Charlie felt appalled at the mere suggestion of what she'd heard. While she wouldn't be able to stop anyone from thinking that they could do that to her, she certainly wouldn't let them. Even if she had to go all out and disregard the primary reasons she just wanted to try and slip away rather than blowing up everything to get out. Which was the fact that she wouldn't be able to keep from hurting others with that method.
Aside from which, she couldn't be sure what she might learn doing this. Especially with how she didn't have to walk herself and they were providing at least some food for her. Even if it wasn't gourmet dining or that much at a time. Merely a chunk of bread or a stew that was less than filling.
"Yes, normally we would do that, but our boss said that she thinks this one will be able to fetch a higher price at the auction in the capital," the caravan woman answered. "There's something about her that the boss seems to think will appeal to some of the crowd there more."
The auction woman merely laughed. "I see. It's true she'd probably fetch a higher price at the capital, but I can just think of a few people in this city who would love to get a piece of her."
"Maybe they will if they head to the capital in time for the next auction there."
"I doubt it. Most of those kinds of people prefer to shop in their own backyard rather than travel with their playthings. It's easier to keep them under control that way."
The caravan woman nodded. "True, even with them in this cage, we sometimes get a clever enough one to find a way to get out. I heard about one that had one of their slaves disappear out of the cage while they were in the middle of the Forest of the Lost a few months back. No one seemed to know when that slave disappeared, only that the slave wasn't there when they got here."
"I remember that," the auction woman laughed. "He was supposed to be a picturesque pleasure slave. One that seemed to not only be able to use magic but also seemed to think that he could refuse to do what he was told and not breed."
"At least this girl is more manageable. She even somehow found a way to stop the spotted plague outbreak we had when we arrived."
"I heard rumors, but I dismissed them when I saw how many slaves you had this time." The auction woman looked at Charlie appraisingly. "She really did that?"
"She did. That's probably part of why the boss thinks she can get more for her in the capital."
"Maybe. Aside from her looks, what else is there that would be what a buyer would really want? Most buyers aren't interested in what she might know. They'd be more interested in her if she was a fighter or had a unique quality about her."
"Well, she can't speak, but that's hardly impressive," the caravan woman laughed.