Two days later, the guards seized and escorted me to the palace once again. They took me to a small, secluded room, away from the nobles. Even though it was small, it was tidy and well-equipped with furniture that was plain but functional. Most slaves would see such quarters as a luxury, but I knew better.

I had no contact with anyone, besides the maids who would come from time to time to bring me meals and clean up my quarters. A few of them were even friendly with me, probably because they thought my social status was lower than theirs. I bet they were glad to finally have someone they can be condescending towards, after being ordered around all day, every day.

Two weeks later, the palace turned into a noisy place. I could hear the servants running outside my quarters, the furious pace of their steps never ceasing. It didn’t take me long to realize what was going on.

The day has come.

Nobody notified me of it. During the past two weeks, I was all alone, besides an occasional visit from the maids. A few of them were very curious about the new arrival, asking me all kinds of questions. Two of them were even bold enough to ask what I was doing in the palace. I feigned ignorance, worried I could get punished if I were to reveal something.

After all, I knew that the spymaster loves testing his subordinates in such ways.

So, I waited. Time passed slowly with nothing to do. I tried looking outside through the small window a few times but saw nothing besides some bushes as my quarters were tucked away from anything interesting.

The noon passed. Then Sun started setting. Finally, a maid entered my quarters. It was the one who was bold enough to ask me what I was doing in the palace. She held some cloth in her hands.

“It’s time. Put this dress on, and let’s go.”

The maid dropped a simple dress on the bed. She stood there, looking me in the eyes but not saying anything. I got the gist of it and changed my clothes right away.

Once that was done, the maid leaned through the open door and got something from the hall.

“I need to put this on you.”

She let it dangle in front of my eyes for a bit. It was a slave collar, with a metal chain attached to it.

“Turn around and lift your hair up.”

Although the words were commanding, her voice was passive. Instead of sounding like someone who’s in control, she sounded as if she was tired.

I obliged without saying a word. In a few moments, the collar was in place.

“Is it choking you?”

“No.”

“If it starts chafing you, do let me know.”

Realizing she won’t be getting an answer, the maid continued: “All right, let’s go.”

We exited the small room, with another maid waiting for us in the hall. The three of us moved through the halls, with the lead maid holding a chain for the collar firmly in her hand. The halls were empty, save for an occasional servant. They would stare at us for a while, but as soon as they realized what was going on, they’d make themselves scarce in a hurry.

“At least the demon they’re giving you to is handsome,” the other maid said as we walked.

“She’ll see him soon enough.”

That was all the conversation we had. As we walked, I started hearing some music. It grew louder and louder with each step we took. Then, at the certain corner, the maid stopped me.

“After we turn this corner, we’ll be in the gardens where the ball is taking place. That’s where the demons are. I’ll give you some time to collect yourself before we proceed.

I took a deep, long breath and exhaled loudly.

“I’m ready.”

“Best of luck to you,” the maid said in a voice devoid of any emotion.

We turned the corner, entering the gardens. Some nobles danced gracefully in pairs, male and female, as the bard played his tune with an uneasy look on his face. Others gossiped and indulged in the expensive vine, segregated in small groups. Most people turned their heads towards us as soon as someone in their group noticed us. They all had different emotions on their faces. Some were curious, some intrigued, others looked at me with pity, while some of them didn’t even realize why their friends were so focused on me.

But I quickly noticed that the most frequent look couldn’t be seen in any of those small crowds.

Not a single person was drunk.

I visited many balls before that one, and all of them were full of nobles who just couldn’t control themselves and had decided to have far more vine than they were supposed to. But it was late now, Sun was about to set, and yet I couldn’t notice any nobles making fools of themselves.

I must say, that scared me quite a bit.

“How serious things have to be to make each and every noble act in a responsible manner?” I wondered.

I also couldn’t see any demons. I expected them to stand out with their horns, bat wings, pointy tails, hoofs, and red or purple-colored skin, but there were none of them. None to be seen.

For a moment, I had a silly hope that maybe, just maybe, all of that was just some sick spymaster’s joke to test my resolve. But then, I finally saw someone strange.

I realized that some people at the ball didn’t have ears nor tails. And these unusual people wore some bizarre clothes.

Some of them even had extremely short hair, as if they wanted to spite the gods on purpose.

Looking in front of me, I noticed The Emperor. His gargantuan body and blue clothes were impossible to miss, the crown on his head only served to confirm it. The female I saw in the throne room was right next to him. They both wore the same extravagant finery they had the last time I saw them. A small host of guards surrounded them as they talked in a very animated manner with some of the guests. Guests who were missing the canine features of the timkik people.

And most of whom were a head taller than The Emperor.

“Ah! Here comes our gift!” The female escorting The Emperor said. I couldn’t see her well in the throne room because I kept my head low most of the time, but now I had no choice but to notice just how attractive she was, especially since her dress was quite tight.

It even missed some pieces in all the right places.

The Emperor swung lazily in my direction: “Ah, yes! We’ve been such great trade partners, and I think we should take it a step further! So, please, take this fine slave as a token of my appreciation! I’m sure you’ll find her talents to be quite satisfactory,” he said while nudging the tall, earless guy near him with a sleazy grin.

The tall guy turned towards me, fixing me with his predatory, sky-blue eyes. His stare caused an involuntary reaction deep in my soul. I was stuck in place, my feet refusing to make a single step towards him.

That didn’t help though, since the maid held the leash firmly, so she started tugging me along. We stopped right in front of the tall guy, only a single beard separating us from him.

My mind started racing as I did my best to analyze the person towering over us. He was so tall, he actually blocked the setting sun, forcing both me and the maid in his shade. His extremely broad shoulders only made everything worse. He wasn’t wide like timkik nobles were. It wasn’t a product of obesity. I couldn’t take a good look due to his proper clothes, but even then it was evident that his belly was completely flat. And yet, his shoulders and upper torso were unbelievably broad, so much so that his figure looked like an upside-down triangle.

His jaw was so wide, it made his face look like an almost perfect square, in complete contrast to the faces I was used to. I couldn’t find a single curvy line on it. It was made out of nothing but straight lines, giving it an incredibly mighty and serious look.

His hair was so short, I failed to notice it at first. But at a second glance, I finally saw it, in its golden color. The hair color which is, to my knowledge, reserved only for the highest of the elven nobles, who claim they are some kind of demi-gods. Another strange thing about it was that it grew straight up instead of falling to the sides naturally.

His skin was extremely pale, unnaturally so. It was even whiter than the clothes some nobles wore in. Yet another mark of elven nobility.

His eyes were the most unusual, and not only because of their color. Just like the golden hair and pale skin, the blue eyes are also a mark of the high elven nobility. And the guy in front of me, although as tall as one, was clearly not an elf. But far stranger than their color was the way those eyes were staring at me. There was something contradictory in his small eyes, as if he was both a threat and a friend at the same time. His eyes were predatory, he had the piercing gaze of a barbarian warlord, and yet those same eyes had some degree of gentleness to them. Many males gazed at me before, but nothing could compare with these strange eyes. It felt as if those weren’t looking at my body, but through it, deep into my core, seeing things I myself didn’t know were there.

That was until those eyes settled on the collar on my neck. I saw them trace the chain attached to it, down to its ending which the maid held in her hand, extending it towards him. Waiting for him to take it away from her.

In an instant, any gentleness his eyes had was gone. He looked me back in the eyes with a rage of a mad lunatic. The way I felt about his stare just a moment ago was nothing compared to this. While his eyes used to radiate an authoritarian presence of a sovereign before, now they radiated something completely different.

Death. For me and everyone else in the garden.

Only then did I finally realize I came head to head with a demon.