I'll tell you what Sam, I feel dirty for this."
They sat somewhere not in the back but not in the front. Somewhere just close enough to see the auction blocks. And it wasn't as if they would have trouble hearing what the auctioneer would be selling.
The event was only available to those who held quite the great amount of wealth for themselves. It was only thanks to their superior that they had been able to receive an invitation to such an auction.
Sam loosened the tie that was around his neck some. The thing was insufferable but yet he had to wear it. "You can pray it away later if you are so inclined."
Bryce frowned at the thought. "Would something as buying a slave really wash away the stain on my soul?" He finished with a grimace as he said the words.
Sam noticed around them that he and Sam looked very much out of place. They were probably the only dark-haired people in the entire hall in a sea of people with hair that ranged from silver to gold and everything in-between.
One lady looked at them with interest and he smiled. She looked away with a sneer.
'And I was just being polite.' Sam turned his attention back to Bryce. His friend might be complaining about this now, but he would still carry out his duty. "It's not so bad. We are buying them, then freeing them. The Seven would be cunts to punish us for such an act." He grinned at his friend. "You might very well think of it as charity! Don't deny it, you know what we are doing is good and it even benefits the kingdom!"
This was his first time in Volantis.
His first mission as well. To say he was nervous would be an understatement. He felt that if he took the wrong step out of line, the earth would very well open up and swallow him whole.
'At least if that does happen, I can say I saw a dragon.' He thought to himself. 'how many men can say the same?'
In Westeros that is. The sights of the dragons flying above Volantis had become something of a normal sight for the people of these lands.
Yes, he had seen the dragon from a distance to be true, the mighty creature letting out a roar of something fierce as it flew up high into the distance, but it was an image that would most certainly stay with him until the end of days. He could certainly see himself telling that to his children.
The beast had looked so small as high in the sky it was, but the people around them had talked of the Black Dread, the greatest of the Targaryen dragons. They had come to know the dragons well enough that they could tell them by the sound of their roars.
That was incredible.
And that was the second emotion.
Whenever it felt as if the nervousness would swallow him whole, the excitement would explode out of him. Getting him all riled up and ready. Making him feel as if everything in the world was some new wonder to be seen.
"I know." Bryce relented with a sigh. "It just goes against everything I was taught growing up, but I'll get used to it. It's a duty required of me by the king and I made my choice in accepting it. To the hells with the consequences."
Well, that was Bryce, but to Sam? He liked it so much. The son of a cobbler travelling to foreign lands in service of the Crown? Father had told him something like that could never have happened if it wasn't for King Edmyn and that he should serve him well for giving him the opportunity.
He didn't plan on letting dishonoring his father so by making a mess of things nor do the same to the king.
"That's the attitude."
A sharp hiss from behind them attracted their attention. "Stop blabbering in that barbarian language of yours! It grates on my ears! The auction is about to start!" The woman who spoke gave them a look of clear distaste as she spoke in smooth, flowing High Valyrian.
Her companion giggled into her hand as she replied. "Why do you bother Vaena? They can't even understand us. Look at the lost expressions on their faces."
"Why they were let inside is beyond me." The one who spoke first said. "I shall have to have words with the manager of the premises about getting himself some more competent guards."
Sam would admit the women were beautiful. More beautiful than all of the girls he had seen back home with their perfect cheek bones, their eyes amethysts eyes and their silver gold hair and soft, pale skin. Their beauty though, did nothing to hide the rot that was their personalities.
So, he and Bryce glanced at each and smiled. "Apologies my ladies," He said in a High Valyrian that was just as smooth and flowing as theirs. The look of shock and surprise that was on their faces was one he was going to savour until the day he died. "If me and my companion have caused you an undue uncomfort, we apologise from the depths of our heart."
Bryce spoke next in the same tone as him though he like him was probably having a hard time from laughing. "If there is anything that we can do to make up for our lack of decorum, please let us know."
"I-I-It's fine." The first one stammered out. Her High Valyrian didn't seem so smooth and flowing with all the stammering she had done. Was it that much of a shock to her that barbarians could speak the 'civilised' language so well? "As you were."
They nodded and turned back to the auction stage where the auctioneer had stepped out. He began to greet the auctioneers that had come for the day's auction. What he said bored him really, but he paid attention nonetheless.
Then the first slave was brought out, dressed immaculately and held herself well. She was probably of Valyrian stock judging by the purple of her eyes, but her dark blonde hair showed signs that she must have been the union of Valyrian blood and another group of men.
Sam found himself leaning forward to listen intently to what the auctioneer said for he didn't want any detail to be left out. "Lot number one! It has no name but has been trained from a young age to be an excellent keeper of books! Its last master was Lysander Vilessaar of the Vilessaar Bank. Experience in the managing of large sums of coin..."
The auctioneer began to sell her to the crowd and Sam and Bryce listened intently. This was the sort of person they had been set to look for. He and Bryce shared a look before they nodded and they made the first bid for the woman.
The women that had been behind them had made a bid for her as well along with several others. It had was of a higher intensity than he had thought it would be, but eventually, the woman with no name was bought by them.
She was just merely the first of several that Sam the son of a cobbler in Volantis and Bryce, the son of a farmer would buy.
The auction soon ended, the product they sold only little in number. It was strange and revolting the way the people of these lands treated people like nothing more than animals. No, Sam would say they treated them even less than that.
They gave them no names and didn't even recognize them as either man, woman or child.
Their new products were brought to them by several guards, their hands chained together. The journey back to the manse that they were staying in was awkward to say the very least. The dead eyes they wore was enough to unnerve him to the point he would have done anything to not be there with them.
He just didn't care for it and it was almost driving him mad.
To calm himself, he decided to look them over. In total, there were three of them. The woman that had been the first to be offered in the auction. A thin man of near thirty or thereabouts, balding and wore Myrish spectacles and a gaunt young man, not that older than them with close cropped silver-gold hair who kept his head low.
All of them had previously belonged to masters who had worked them in matters that involved finance and banking. The sort of people with the sort of skills that his grace was looking for.
"My name's Bryce." His companion said out of the blue in High Valyrian. "I know they said you had no names, but is that truly true?"
They looked amongst each other before the gaunt young man shook his head. "It depends on what you want to call me master."
From beside him, he could feel Bryce frown at the way the young man had addressed him. "I'm not your master. We did not buy you so that you could call us master. We intend to free you."
They viewed them more with suspicion than surprise at his words. Perhaps the cruel jape of offering them freedom had been played upon them many times that they cared no more?
"We do not lie." Sam said this time. "We intend to offer you freedom, coin as well to begin your own journey in life as freedmen if you do wish to accept our offer."
The older man looked at them in quiet contemplation before licking his lips. "What is the offer?" He asked slowly.
It was Sam who spoke. He tried his damnest to sound confident and sell it to the three soon to be freedmen. "Our king requires men of particular skills and knowledge, skills and knowledge that the people of his kingdom lack. Skills and knowledge that you possess. He offers you the chance to cast away the bonds of slavery and start a new life in Westeros. A land where slavery is outlawed and a crime against the gods themselves.
That's what he offers you. Will you accept?"
And with that, he had left the decision up to them entirely.