It was my first time inside the inner courtyard. As we walked the large utilitarian buildings gave way to the trees and the bushes. Which in turn opened up to an entire wooden villa sequestered deep within the natural landscape. Whoever planned this knew his trade since a few trees, bushes, and strategically curved roads were enough to make it look like the inner building was located somewhere deep inside the forest. Rather than the capital, it was actually at.

Other servants walked past us, as we entered the building. They didn’t gawk at us, which relieved some of my worries. Whatever was happening was most likely not that unusual for them. Our pace was brisk but not rushed. Which allowed me plenty of time to observe the inner life of the wealthy.

As far as I could tell the main design was emphasizing quiet, serenity, and natural comfort. The hallway that we walked through was clearly intended for servants. And, occasionally, I could glimpse an inner courtyard deeper within the building. Full of plants and running water and devoid of people. Very zen.

I wondered if the palace reflected the character of its inhabitants, or was it just a nod to the current fashion. It was impossible to tell right now. The warriors following us were rather aloof, content in watching me like two hawks, but otherwise not showing any aggression. While Sulla showed his no-nonsense personality on the first day. Even leading us today with his grim determination, his beard jutted forward like a nose of an icebreaker.

Soon we approached a large hall. Sulla quickly but silently opened the doors, glowing with some sort of runic script or complex geometrical forms, depriving me of a chance to observe some real magic up close. And ushered me to enter.

I walked in, noticing that the warriors took guard at the door, and bowed, going down on the knee as the custom required. My sight was cast downward, preventing me from seeing the entire hall, but I could still notice minute details on the floor around me. Tiny scripts on the wooden floor surrounding columns, occasional lines in the corners or on the walls nearly invisible to sight.

This room was clearly trying to look mundane but wasn’t. I wondered how hard it was to clean it with so many drawings everywhere or maybe I was just paranoid and was staring at the cleaning runes all this time.

I could also feel that this room was used for dining as well. The vivid bouquet of smells assaulted my nose as soon as I entered. My bow was quick to hide my swallowing. Whatever was here was no simple bread and grub I was accustomed to. My mind teasing me with names of fruits and delicacies that had similar smells. The faint tinge of citruses, the sweet taste of meat cooked to tender perfection. The buttery aroma of bread, cooked without dirt additives.

“This is him,” Sulla’s voice brought me back to life.

“Bring him closer,” A soft, melodic voice answered him back. She sounded young.

I got up and lifted my eyes, walking inward. As I suspected the hall had tables, filled with food. The semi-circle they have formed clearly pointed where I should stand, easily observable from every table. Although there were guards and servants along the walls, Irje included, only a single table had an occupant, the central one.

Domina didn’t just sound young, she also looked young as well. For someone to lead an entire manor that is. Wer usually were on the larger side, but she was quite the opposite. Her form was rather diminutive even for my standards. Her red hair was long and braided similarly into two braids and a ponytail. Although her braided circle pendants were clearly carved from two solid gemstones.

Each one of them probably cost more than the entire batch of slaves Sulla bought.

She also had the most expressive eyebrows I’ve ever seen, thick but neatly trimmed otherwise. Her almond-shaped yellow eyes, calm and inquisitive, observed me with warded curiosity. Her large and foxy ears straight and facing me, judging by Irje’s ear positions I had her undisputed attention.

But it wasn’t just her diminutive elegance that entranced me. She was lying on a dining sofa, large and comfortable, with one of her arms propping her head upright. The other leisurely playing with a golden orb floating between her fingers. Glowing blue symbols appearing sporadically on its surface and in the air above it. Her kaftan, black with golden embroidery along its edges hugged her figure provocatively, hiding everything from sight but the curves of her body. Letting a single appendage out. Her tail. Her enormous fluffy tail, fiery red with a white tip at the end.

I swallowed. She was a wermage.

I bowed in front of her once again standing in the centre of the room.

“Your sight is in my heart.” A common first-time greeting, a very polite one. But I wouldn’t ruin my chances by being rude to her for no reason. Apart from being a small cog in the suppressive system, she had done me nothing wrong so far.

“Hmmm, so you are the one who made these.” I noticed her picking up a piece of the soap I made. “Impressive.”

I sighed mentally from relief and begun to speak, only to be interrupted by her.

“But, why are you really here for?” Her words sent me in a loop.

“I beg your pardon?”

“Why are you here?” There was a clear emphasis in her words but I still wasn’t sure what it meant.

I scratched my head. “I had no idea or a plan to end up at your manor specifically if that is what you are asking. I was hoping to land in a wealthy household, yes. That way my potential skills would be more likely to be appreciated.” I glanced at her trying to gauge her reaction, but she was busy watching the orb. “A woman of your calibre has plenty of hands and wealth as such, what others see as an unnecessary risk for you is a mere gamble barely worth worrying about. And yet the potential benefits are the same.”

She hummed, mollified. I wasn’t sure if it was the denial of any plot, or my attempts to stroke her ego that did the trick.

“And what do you intend to gain? What is your plan for the future?”

“I would start with basic necessities,” I ventured. “Freedom too. Financial first, if you let me make the soap for you. Then freedom to choose my work so that I could make more than just a soap.”

“Just that?”

“Well personal freedom at the end of it, of course.”

She plucked a grape her face placid. “Truly. And why would I release you then? Especially,” she nodded at Irje “since someone mentioned your skills as a companion are vastly greater than the soap you are making.”

I couldn’t stop but glance at Irje myself. She stood quietly avoiding my gaze, her face red. I forced myself to turn and pay attention to Domina instead. What happened, happened and freaking out over Irje’s spilt beans was useless right now. I would gain nothing but ruin my tentative position.

Domina watched me, I dare to guess even approvingly. “So?”

“The soap was just a beginning. The only reason why I couldn’t show my skills to you at this very moment is that most of what I know would require time and ingredients to make. The soap alone took us weeks to get correctly. I wouldn’t dare to offend you with mediocre results.”

“Can you read?” Her question kicked the air out of my sails. I’ve seen the script they used, while looking familiar it wasn’t a complete copy of any alphabet that I knew of.

“No, but-”

“Can you write?” I could but there is no way I would show her that kind of knowledge yet. Especially since they would look like squiggles to her with no one to confirm my skills.

“I can count and more”

“You can count and yet not know the letters?” I saw Sulla shuffle behind her looking sceptically at me, but he kept his mouth closed. Unwilling to interrupt his mistress I mused.

I frowned for a moment. “I was taught to count using separate symbols, different from the alphabet.”

She looked at me oddly. “Alphabet?”

“The collection of all letters that are used to write words.”

“You meant Virtana.” She waved me off, her confusion gone, and plucked another grape. I guess I now knew the first letters of their alphabet. “And why were you taught such a method if one can simply use letters to express any number they desire, thirty more symbols just to count would be a waste.”

One thing I could tell about her right now, that she was only slightly curious. Not about any knowledge that I had, but myself as an entertainment. I stood in front of her, as she leisurely ate her fruits; and amused her with my stories, like a slightly stale TV show, turned on to relieve the boredom. I didn’t let it gall my pride, I wasn’t that prideful. With her every response I learnt more about this world. And, in turn, with every moment of me speaking back to her, I had yet another chance to pique her interest.

“Speed would be my guess, and there are only ten symbols.” From her description, I realized that they still had an alphabetic numeral system, like Greek or Cyrillic. Yet another grain of knowledge. Yet another hold for me to grab at: there were many reasons why the Hindu-Arabic system was much more common.

I heard Sulla scoff.

“And if I had three shipments of wool, a thirteen hundred twenty bolts on two of them, and a fourteen hundred seventy-five on the last one,” She read from a parchment on the table, clearly amused. “How much tax would I pay for all of them?”

“What is the tax rate?”

She blinked, clearly not expecting such a response. “One for forty measures. For the manor of my rank.”

“So two and a half per cent on forty-one fifteen,” I mused quietly, and then said louder: “A hundred and two bolts and thirty-five over forty.”

I wasn’t sure how they counted fractions here, but it was unlikely that she would understand the notation I was used to. I was vaguely aware that alphabetic systems counted everything below one as a sum of common fractions like a half, a quarter and so on but I had no idea how their system worked exactly.

I chose the middle ground.

“How long is the single bolt of cloth?”

Domina turned away from the uncomfortably looking Sulla and looked at me once more. “Two hundred arms in each.”

“So that would be a hundred and two bolts, as well as a hundred and seventy-five arms of loose cloth,” I concluded, happy with a neat answer.

“I also-” I tried to dig inside my pouch only to be interrupted by the wave of her hand, gesturing me to wait. I watched as she turned back and looked at Sulla once again, laying still. The tip of her tail twitching slightly.

After few more seconds, he nodded at her, exhaling slightly. And then her gaze was on me. Her yellow eyes boring into mine, sucking me inside.

Slowly her tail started to languidly move, drawing giant infinity symbols in the air.

“Hmm. So you do know how to count.” She wasn’t looking at me with mild interest anymore. Her gaze wasn’t of a bored noble but of a calculating merchant. “Who was it, that taught you this system of counting?”

My mind was full of gymnastics once again, trying to present as little information about my nanite body as possible. She asked for a person, and I had no idea what the Navigator name was, nor whoever coded the first nanite batch. What I knew was the name of a person who made the system popular.

“Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi” My statement made her blink, arch her eyebrow and frown at the orb in her hands. Was that some sort of testing device? Did I fail yet another magical test?

“Al…gorithmi” She murmured slowly, accepting my statement. “And where is he now?”

“Dead.” Probably had been dead for millennia at least. “I don’t know anyone else. As far as I can tell I am the only one.” I added to prevent any other disappointments in the future.

She leaned back contemplating. “So you are the only one, who knows about this system?”

“As far as I know, yes.” Technically correct, I didn’t know anyone. “But it won’t stay hidden if widely used, and it is not useful unless it is used. If you desire knowledge that is more lucrative in secret, I have that too.”

Her brow rose up, intrigued. I quickly reached for my pouch only to be interrupted yet again by the wave of her hand.

“Domina?”

“You said it was a secret knowledge?” She stared me down, fingers tight on the orb.

“Yes, as far as I could tell as I explored the city yesterday, it is not known at least in Samat, perhaps across the Emanai as a whole.”

“I see.” She leaned back. “Leave us.”

I tried to rise. “Not you. Everyone else.” Only to stay in place, watching everyone around us leave.

The hall grew quiet without the breath of many people within it. I shivered feeling open and vulnerable, like a fly in front of a hungry spider. A very foxy spider, that was lounging in front of me, her tail waving back and forth. Eating grapes like a proper spider should. Observing me.

As if waiting for something.

I raised my eyebrow in a wordless question, making her smirk.

“Some of them will know of what you will say here,” She reasoned. “But they will know it from me and only if they need to.”

I bowed my head in half-nod. “Ah yes, operational security. You can’t spill what you don’t know.”

She chuckled “Your words peculiar but apt, I remember Irje saying something similar about your manner of speech.”

“Are you close?” I asked, emboldened by her friendly attitude.

“She is a useful part of my household.” The slight steel in her words made me mentally pull back. No need to be hasty. She continued. “Are you close?”

“I consider her a friend, first and foremost. It is through her actions that I even have this audience right now, forgetting what she had done for me would be impossible and selfish.”

Honestly, with what she had managed to do for me, her slip up today was not even an issue. And, objectively speaking, it was as much of my fault, as it was hers. Our nightly escapades were anything but silent.

“Good. You should remember that. Just as you will remember that all you have is through my goodwill alone, and no one’s else.”

“Of course.”

“Now, the secret?”

“Ah.” I fumbled with my pouch, suddenly extremely self-conscious “A fair warning this might look underwhelming.”

“Go on, out with it.”

I opened the pouch and fished out a somewhat wilted branch of a succulent I’ve picked up yesterday.

“This plant grows only near the saltwater, it drinks it and the salt stays behind.” I quickly rushed with the explanation seeing her frown. “As such the ash of this plant is different from the plants that grow on freshwater. Soda ash.”

I licked my lips and quickly glanced at her. I still had her attention. Good.

I moved on, “Personally, as you would expect, I went out looking for it to improve my soap even more, to make it even softer than it is right now.” I cast a quick glance at her butt. “Much more gentle to wash the long hair.”

Her tail made a twirl and landed in her arms. “A product for a specific client.” She mused, stroking her tail.

“Exactly, a unique product. Found nowhere else.” I continued as she nodded, confirming my knowledge about the soap here. “Fragrant and exquisite, with a price to match.”

She smiled, “And cheap to make.”

I shared her smile “The market is yours.”

“You speak like a merchant.”

“As far as I know the manor is famous for its deals in textile. It is expected that Domina would be the best in that regard. As such I speak to the best merchant in the household.” I extended my arm. A figurative olive branch in my palm.

She took the branch from my hands, her fingers gentle and soft. “You are very generous in sharing secrets, even to me.” She mused twirling the plant with her fingers.

I shook my head “Because their worth is nothing, while they are stuck within my mind. Just as with Irje, a lot of what I can do is simply impossible without your help.” I stroked my chin. “In fact, you can consider this as my gift of thanks from the future.”

“Most would not risk so much on a first meeting.” She argued instead.

“That is correct. But remember when I said that it was your wealth that allowed you to take bigger risks?” Seeing her nod I carried on: “It is the wealth of my knowledge, that allows me to risk more as well.”

She smirked at me. “Do you know what this is?”

The orb.

I smiled, expecting her answer somewhat. “Unfortunately no, magic is beyond my current knowledge.”

She quirked her brow at my remark but went on, “This is the Orb of Truth. A personal gift from Gods. I can assume you know what it does from the name alone, although it has other uses.”

“A remarkable artefact, I can imagine how useful something like that could be.”

“Indeed. And through it, I know that you haven’t lied once throughout the entire discussion. A commendable trait I could say so myself, but it makes me wonder.” She got up and walked around the table. “How much more is there, in that head of yours.”

Up close she was almost my height. Tiny but regal. She walked with enough poise not to worry about how others would judge her. For all would find her worthy of her title.

I met her gaze unflinching, a hint of a smile still on my lips. While I had some dangerous knowledge I had even more that I could give.

“Well, a great example is in your hands already.”

“Hmm?”

“The plant. It is called Glasswort for a reason. The very same ash used to make soap is also used as a flux in glassmaking. This ash is used in the creation of clear glass.”

“The same glass, that we import from afar.”

“The same glass that could be made from the sand on the shores.”

She hummed, clearly pleased with her probe. “Anything else?”

“Plenty and none. I had plans to make a better loom but beyond that, it is hard to come up with useful applications for my knowledge. I was honest when I said I know how to count and more. Unfortunately, most of my knowledge is rather situational and generally useless.”

She walked past me returning to her sofa. Her tail brushing my chin as she went by. She plucked another grape with an extremely pleased expression on her face. “I should praise Sulla for his discerning eye.”

“He only bought me as an extra, free of charge. It is Irje that picked me from the crowd, washed the grim and made me shine.”

“You disapprove of his actions?”

“I am just stating the truth, and I do feel generous toward her. To praise one and not the other would be a disservice.”

“Then let this be my first lesson to you.” Her tone was serious. “You should learn to speak appropriately about your betters.”

I mentally bristled at that remark but kept silent.

“Staying quiet? Good. If Sulla was in the room when you spoke, you would have gotten nothing but his ire. You would’ve put Irje at odds with him as well, her charge undermining his position. Sulla served me well, longer than you have been alive, and will continue long after you are dead. If I had to choose between the both of you my choice would be obvious.”

“I understand.” I really did. “Forgive my words, I let my mouth open wider than my mind.”

My choice of words made her snort. “You really did.”

Nevertheless, I bowed my head. “Please advise me in the future.”

Humming, she pulled out a parchment and started writing in it. “I hope that I won’t, but something is telling me that I would have to.”

I had no words to refute that and nothing more to add so I watched her quietly as she wrote. Eventually, she was done with her task and quickly sealed her missive in a scroll.

“Here.” She passed it over to me. “Take this and head out to the Primary Kiymetl Manor”

Wait. This wasn’t the main one?

She continued on, not noticing my confusion. “You are to meet Virnan Kiymetl Shah.” Her eyes once again bore into my soul like twin yellow lasers. “Remember my lesson. I will not suffer you offending my own teacher. Tell him about your numbers, answer his questions. The rest he would know from the scroll.”

I opened my mouth but, once again, she waved me off. Her mind clearly thinking about something else.

“Go. I expect you to impress him with your knowledge. I will call upon you in few days when I am ready. And call Sulla back on your way out.” She thought for a second. “And Irje too.”

It was hard to refute her when she was giving orders. She was probably born barking orders and demanding to be obeyed. Within seconds I was outside telling Sulla and Irje to head inside. Irje was still trying to avoid me. I sighed, tonight might be awkward once again.

Still, I had things to do and she already disappeared into the hall anyway. Within minutes I was past the gates my feet taking me into the city at a brisk pace.

And then I stopped.

Suddenly.

Where the fuck is the Primary Kiymetl Manor?