…

          As Aisling walked down the ships hall, she looked back behind herself. There was the prince, standing by the door so he could see his surrogate uncle again. She hated that man with a burning passion. Not only was he there, but he seemed to be teaching the prince his ways.

          She desperately wanted to spit in his presence, but she was a slave. She was a plaything, a tool to be used and discarded when her master wished. She didn’t mind it, but it was silly of her to think otherwise.

          She went down the hall, to her room. The hall itself was wide enough to for three men to walk side by side each other with a little bit of wiggle room. There was a rather large number of doors on the sides of the hallway. Her room was three doors down on the right.

When she entered, she noticed multiple things. It was a simple thing, with bare wooden walls. The ceiling was bare bones as well, with braces for the floor above her uncovered. She hoped that her master had a better room. Why did she hope that he did?

Well, it was simple, he was better than most master’s she had heard of. His coming here, to the first and only prince’s birthday party was stressful as she had seen. The first prince was surely nice when she had met him, if not a little carefree. But the king seemed strict from what she heard right after getting here.

          Her bed was as simple as she had thought. It was a wooden frame, and a straw mattress. What was strange thought was that there was no cabinet to hold her uniforms. She thought about it for a minute and sighed. Did whoever set this boat up expect the riders to simply get their own furniture?

          Well, she was in the area reserved for low status servants. It was no wonder why it wasn’t well furnished. But again, there at least had to be a place to set her stuff down, right?

          She looked around the room, taking it all in. Then she noticed a drawer under her bed. It was a small thing, looking to hold only the bare essentials. She pulled it out from under her new bed and looked at it, seeing if it had a handle, it did not.

          It only had a cut in handle, she gripped it and pulled out the drawer. Inside was a simple space, still only large enough to hold her uniforms and such. She sighed once more and made to put her things inside the space. Then a knock resounded at her door.

          Careful so as to not offend anyone on the other side of the door, she walked over with a brisk pace. She opened the door to find someone she had not expected to find at her door. It was the first prince Augustus.

          She then bowed her head in reverence. He was a prince, and she was a slave. It was as simple as that. But she had had a feeling about him. She had wondered if he would visit her later. But she had expected him to visit her much later.

          “Raise your head Aisling! I want to ask you something,” the first prince said.

          She raised her head to look at the young boy. He was simply standing there with a smile on his face. She curtsied while picking up the hem of her skirt a little bit. She wondered what he was thinking.

          “What is it that you wish to show me, First Prince Augustus?” she asked the boy.

          Simply thinking of him as such would probably be seen as bad manners by the rest of the world. But he was simply that, a young boy who seemed eager to talk to her for whatever the reason.

          His smile simply grew a bit brighter, as if he was happy that she was simply talking to him. Then it turned devious. It was like he was only a young boy, ready to bring the world to a stop with nothing but pranks. He put a hand up, as if he wanted her to shake it.

          “My lord, do you wish to shake my hand?” she asked.

When he nodded, she grew a sinking feeling in her gut. She quirked up an eyebrow but still lifted her hand to his. She could feel the magic in his hand. It was as if there was lightning in his palms. She grasped her hand in his and felt a small pulse of electricity go through her hand and arm.

          She then shook the young prince’s hand in hers while hiding a smile. Augustus had a stupefied look about him. He seemed to be utterly shocked by her unflinching hand.

          “Aisling, how did you do that? That was a lightning fist I modified to knock out a person!” the ten-year-old asked.

          While she was rather conflicted by the fact that he openly admitted that he wanted to knock her out with magic, she still had to tell him how she was so resistant to the spell. That was going to be a rather long explanation. It led down a rather long rabbit hole.

          “My prince, that is a very long and winded story that encompasses all of this humble slave’s life. Could you be more specific?” she asked of him.

          She knew it was improper to not tell a free person to specify their question, but it was needed now.

          “Why didn’t my magic do anything?” he asked in turn.

          She nodded her head once more and told him his answer. It was much shorter now. She only needed to tell him how spirit magic affected her body. It was much simpler than the long answer.

          “I kept a major Spirit within my body for to long. This caused him to merge with me. I gained his resistances, powers, and strength as a result of this. I also grew these angel wings on my back as a result of this incident as well,” she told him.

          He seemed enamored by this and started to hop up and down. she seemed to have reignited his fervor for magic. She didn’t even know that he had any drive for it. It was as if he was enthralled by her. this was kind of tiring, but if she was being honest, it was kind of endearing.

          “How did you get the spirit in you? What is a Major Spirit anyway?” he asked in rapid fire.

          She nearly smiled at this; it was like he was a younger sibling. It was as if she had never left her home. But she was a slave, by her master’s side was her home. These feelings were just that, feelings of the past. Nostalgia, that’s what this was.

          She took a beath and tried to answer his questions as best she could. It was difficult to do so, as she wasn’t used to talking to people for long periods of time anymore. She used to be able to keep with children, but that skill to simply talk to kids like Augustus seemed to try and slip back into her slave frame of mind.

          “My Prince, the reason there was a spirit inside of me was because I was in combat, and I can use spirit magic. While I was in combat, I let him inside of me to gain power in my body and spells,” she took a breath so she could continue to speak.

          “A major spirit is a sentient Spirit that has gain great power. This is because when a major spirit is born a lot of minor spirits gather together and merge. This is what makes a major spirit,” she finished.

          The young prince was about to speak when the two of them felt a shift under their feat. It was the ship; it had started to move out of the harbor. She looked to the prince after she had glanced at the floor. He had started to sway a little bit, like he was seasick.

          “My Prince, do you get seasick?” she asked him.

          He only nodded his head in response. She felt her mask of false calm break and she smiled. She felt like she had the smallest connection to this young boy. That was a rather heretical thought in and of itself, but he was simply to kind and to free spirited to hate.

“I know a great way of getting rid of seasickness. Do you wish to hear it?” she asked the boy.

He nodded his head again; he was starting to turn green. It was rather obvious he was going to barf.

“Then please lay your head on my lap, my prince,” she told him.

…

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