Slaves Of The Empire {1}

One | Moving Forward

"Am I?"

The terse, quick way she spoke told Ahsoka everything Ashalla had not said aloud. While Ahsoka herself had little to fear, Ashalla still had the freshness of early adolescence so many perverted slavers coveted. Paired with a lovely face and stunning shape, she was an ideal candidate for the master's tribute to the Noreinos.

Ahsoka didn't know what to say, so, hesitantly, she took Ashalla's hand.

The younger girl shut her eyes and clenched her fingers tight around Ahsoka's. "I can't go to the Noreinos, Alynna. I can't."

"It's out of my power, 'Shal. This... is the way things are."

"I'm with child," she blurted, and suddenly Ahsoka understood. A person could hear stories about Lord Imperator Noreino's brutality from just about anyone they asked. Ahsoka knew to take them with a grain of salt, but his sprawling residence in an unforgiving city was still no place for a teenager to go about carrying and birthing a baby.

Ahsoka guessed Ashalla had a month, maybe two, before she started to show. Then she would be found out and sent off for hard labor, or worse. A pregnant slave was a bad investment, and there were a million others who could take her place.

"Can't Kuro get you those special pills, like the other few times you've been in trouble?" Ahsoka asked, more numbly than she should have. It had been a long time since she'd had to look after anyone but herself – and even there she only did the bare minimum – and she had never seen the younger woman look so vulnerable.

Ashalla shook her head mournfully and dropped Ahsoka's hand to drape her arms protectively over her belly. "He fell out of favor with the noblewoman he used to take them from. Even with us both living under one roof he would have no way to get more for me." She had tears in her eyes when she spoke again, this time in a terrified babble: "Please, Alynna, I doubt I'll carry to term, but I can't go to–"

That was all Ahsoka caught before the door to the girls' room in the sleeping quarters screeched and groaned open on sliding mechanisms the humidity had rusted nearly into oblivion. All around them girls leapt to their feet and stood to a fearful attention. In a gesture fuelled more by reflex than a genuine sense of self-preservation, Ahsoka did the same and hauled Ashalla up after her.

A pair of guards stepped inside. They drew their shock batons and waved them to ward off the girls closest to them, then retreated to allow the stewardess, a pudgy, squat Theelin woman named Brakka, and her two aides passage.

Her gaze skimmed over the tired, uneasy faces before her for a moment before she spoke. "Well, you fine young things, today is a special day," she barked. "Before the sun is up six of you will be en route to Kyzeron, and a new master."

Kyzeron was the regional capital, which in three years House Noreino had built from a small mining and foresting village into an economic hub to rival the planetary capital of Iziz. It was also, most notably, where the Imperator had his residence. As though the same thought had occurred to her, Ashalla shot Ahsoka a look that could only mean 'I told you so'. It would've been much more effective had Ahsoka not suspected the other girl was about to burst into tears again.

"Best clothes, best behavior – a representative of the Lord Imperator will be along shortly to inspect you in person. You have half an hour," Brakka finished, ignoring the anxious murmurs of the girls assembled before her.

A representative of the Imperator is making the selection personally? That's not normal for a transaction like this, Ahsoka thought, struggling to keep her face void of surprise. Hopefully whatever got through wouldn't look amiss. The master must be making must be a bigger deal with the Noreinos than just settling gambling debts. Something else is going on here, something I can't see...