“Speak up Sylvia.” I waited till we got back in the air to grill her.

She shifted her grip on me, pulling herself closer before she spoke. “In Verdant and all the monster girl domains humans live and thrive… just not freely.”

I squeezed my eyes closed and tried not to react. “So humans are slaves?”

“Yes. We monster girls couldn’t survive without men.” She whispered.

“Speaking of what do most monster girls do for sustenance? How does that exactly work?”

“We monster girls feed off the fluids produced by sex. They come with a certain magical potential that is nourishing to us. We can feed off each other…” She paused, searching for a way to describe it. “It would be like a human eating nothing but lettuce for their life. It might work for a while but without something else, problems would arise.”

“We often have other parts to us besides the succubus half of our lineage that can feed in a more normal way, like my air elemental half.”

They couldn’t survive without humans, like at all. Given how antagonistic humans are to monster girls, there is no way for them to live symbiotically. “So you enslave them, but where are they all coming from?”

“Master, the slaves have children and are sold off. Unfortunately, we can’t seem to get slaves to become mages.”

“Mages are better how?”

“Like I said, there is magic potential in your seed. But for a mage it is so much greater, whatever goddess touched you has made it even several times more potent than a normal mage too.”

Ah, so I was a super food.

“I think I understand. It is just hard to wrap my head around the idea of enslavement.” Now I knew I needed to be more careful in Verdant. It wasn’t just sexual slavery I might get hit with.

“We treat them very well. The men often live very comfortable lives as they stay close to us and are fed from several times a day.”

I’d have to see it to get my head around it, so I changed topics. “What are the serpents and why am I ‘unmarked’?”

She sighed again. “One of the big three slave trading companies. Serpents, Roses and Waves is what most people call them, they tattoo those symbols on their necks. You have no tattoo of any slave trading company so you are a fresh capture not a runaway.”

“If it is so nice, why are there runaways.” I could practically feel her wilt behind me, but damnit I was feeling combative. “Sorry that was harsh.”

“It is a reasonable question. Like humans, we have good and bad. Some of my fellow monster girls mistreat their slaves behind closed doors as is their prerogative in our culture.”

I chewed on that as we continued to fly over the desert sands.

The sun slowly climbed down the sky toward the horizon, and then I saw it.

A massive cliff hovering over a green dot that grew till it covered the horizon. Verdant was beautiful. A lush paradise in the middle of the desert.

“Yes, that’s Verdant. The Pharoah lives in a palace carved into the cliff itself.” Sylvia swept out wide to give him a view of the sprawling city.

True to her word, if he didn’t know better, he would have thought it was another city like Khopesh. Only with a massive lake at the center trailing off into a river that would then cut the southern desert in half, according to Sylvia.

Three monster girls shot up from the city as we approached, stopping my appreciation of the city itself as I focused on the new arrivals.

Two gryphons appeared first, like the one I’d met in the desert: they were well endowed and strong looking. The third arrival came up slower on a pair of bisected wings and chitin covering parts of her body and a bulbus growth sticking out her back that came to a sharp point.

I could only guess she was some sort of wasp girl. Pretty, but her face was set in a cold hard mask as she hovered in front of Sylvia as the two gryphons kept gliding around us.

“What is your purpose in coming here?” Wasp girl asked.

“I’m here to visit my family. I’ve brought along one human.” Sylvia answered, as if this was normal. Maybe it was.

“Do you know where they live?” She bobbed slightly in the air and looked me over with a lick of her lips.

“Yes, on the east side of the city near the market.”

“Be careful with an unmarked slave, you should mark him before someone gets a bright idea.”

“Thank you for your advice.” Sylvia gave a half bow in the air.

All three of them waved her in and continued in the air, as if on some patrol.

“They are part of the city guard and why your kingdom has no record of this city. They could spot anyone that came that close and they’d take the chance to earn the extra coin and deliver him to one of the slave traders.” Sylvia angled down into the city towards the east side, as she said before.

“We will have to wait until tomorrow to try and meet with the Pharoah. I was going to take you back to my home for the night.”

That made sense. Human rulers didn’t entertain guests at this hour anyway. He’d go tomorrow morning with Sylvia.

“Before we get there, I have to tell you that air elementals are often very communal. I don’t have my own place instead I live with my mothers.”

“Plural?”

“Yes… You’ll have to see for yourself because we are there.” She slowed down and landed in the middle of a busy city street.

No one turned to look at her as if it was an everyday occurrence for people to just fly down. In fact, if I looked at the sky there were other monster girls passing by just above the roof line.

The street itself was well made of cobblestones and the buildings made of either brick or stucco. Clay singles lined the roofs as Sylvia passed down into an alley. “Are you ready?”

“Yes?” I wasn’t quite sure what I was supposed to be ready for.

She opened the door to babble and breeze blowing out at us. One last hesitant look over her shoulder before she led me inside.

There was a long tunnel entrance in which a chorus of female voices giggled and talked. I couldn’t help but notice an entry way table was bolted down to the floor. The picture frames were similarly firmly secured to the walls.

The wind picked up as we went deeper and Sylvia called out. “Mums, I’m home.” 

It went silent for a moment before a rushing wind caught up with us and it was like I was in the middle of a tornado for a second, Sylvia broke apart and became part of the wind as they swirled and shifted off me blowing around the house like a storm.

Now I understood why everything was secured to the floor. If this was how an air elemental went about their own house.

The ball of multiple air elementals finally split, and Sylvia peeled herself back to my side. “Mums, why don’t you say ‘hi’?”

The mass of wind split into six different Sylvias.

To be clear, they were all startlingly similar. Not quite exact, slight differences in facial features, slightly higher brows on one, a sharper nose on another or thinner lips. But they could have all passed for sisters.

“I’m Syltia”

“Sylre, it’s a pleasure.”

“Sylvannas.”

“Sylgred, if you please.”

The next curtsied. “Syltri”

And finally “Sylrita.”

…

There was no way in hell I was going to remember any of their names.

“So, which one is your real mom?” I should at least put a firm attempt on that one.

“None of us know.” Sylre… I think… said.

“You don’t know?” I looked at Sylvia for help.

She sighed like she was about to tell an embarrassing childhood story. “You saw how my mothers were when we entered. They were like that with their slave at the time and supposedly it lasted a while. Eventually I popped out. Hence they are all just mom.”

Syltia came by and sniffed at me. “But I can be her mom for you tonight,” she purred, and the others jumped in line.

“I’m her real mom.”

“No, I am. I couldn’t have missed her coming out.”

“No, you were riding Henry at the time. I’m her real mom.”

Sylvia held up her hand to quiet all of them. “That you are my mom would wierd out Sam. He doesn’t want to have sex with you because of it.”

I mean, I wasn’t really against it. This was weird as hell, but they looked like her twin… sextuplets?… either way I’d be down.

But Sylvia was trying to put a stop to it, so I humored her.

“Yes, it is odd for humans to sleep with a woman and her mother.” That ought to work.

“NO! Syltia is really her mother.” One yelled.

Another piped up. “Yeah, Syltia is her mother.”

“What are you two doing? I’m not her real mother, Sylgred is!”

My mouth may have fallen open as they started fighting once again, only this time it was about who wasn’t her mother.

Sylvia’s face was as red as a tomato and looked like she was about to burst. “All of you quit it out. Sam’s mine, mine alone I’m a greedy little elemental and I’m not sharing.”

Her mothers pouted, and it got awkward real fast.

A man leaned in. “Is everything okay in here?” He had a rose blossom tattooed to his neck, and when he saw me, he smiled. “Oh, we have guests.” Before his eyes trailed over to Sylvia. “Is he your new slave?”

Sylvia hesitated and looked back at me for a second. We hadn’t discussed how we were going to play it and without my permission she was hesitant to overstep.

So I stepped in to help. “Something like that. I’m Sam by the way.”

“Henry, I work for these lovely ladies.” He pointed a spatula at them. Henry had a handsome, chiseled jaw and an athletic body. I wondered if they bred for looks primarily.

Not that I was that much of a slouch. Sam’s body was well toned and my face symmetrical, which made up 90% of the battle in looks.

“I didn’t think they ate.” I pointed to the spatula.

He realized he was holding it and set it down behind him. “They don’t eat food, but I do and I have to keep up my stamina for them.”

“Ah.” was all that I could say to that.

He didn’t act like a slave; the Syls didn’t look like they harmed him. Yet his station was clear. He was below them and served them. Happily apparently.

“Could you make a second helping? I’m famished from our travel here.”

“Can do. I’d better get back to it before it burns.” He ducked back into what I now assumed was the kitchen.

Among the women they had started gossiping among themselves, and I decided to go give Henry a helping hand.

The kitchen was small and simple. I guessed if Henry was the only one who used it regularly, it wouldn’t be the focal point.

“So how’s life?” I tried to make small talk.

Henry cock an eyebrow. “Good, I guess. They are good for me and I have a roof over my head. Not much more I could ask for.”

There was so much more he could ask for, but I didn’t say that.

“I can see it in your face even if you don’t say it. You are looking down on me. I’ve met others who were once free.” Henry pulled a pot off the stove and I saw it was what looked like porridge with hearty chunks of meat in it.

“Do you ever think about it?” I asked.

“Not in a long while. Maybe when I was younger, but all it took was a few examples and I quickly lost any of those ideas.” Henry put the pot on the table and got a wooden spoon to eat right out of it.

“What happened to them?”

Henry shook his head. “You don’t want to know.”

“But I really do.” I said, watching him more closely. “I’m not a slave, I came here to talk to Cleopatra.”

Henry snorted. “Sure. You sound like so many others when they first come here. Either you get with the program or you face the consequences.”

“Which are?” I was leaning over him as he ate now.

“You get pumped with lust till you 're an addict and then sold to the red-light district or a breeder if you are lucky.” Henry whispered.

I sucked in a sharp breath as a shudder ran through me.

“Come to bed, Sam?” Sylvia poked her head in.

“Of course.” I replied, leaning away from Henry. “Thanks for the information.”

Henry used his spoon to wave goodbye as Sylvia pulled me into another room that had a cute pink tone to everything and a frilly bed.

“Not what I expected.” I teased, before pushing her down on the bed.

I tugged at the binding I had on her to confirm before using my Sylvia to pleasure me.