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Damn the old lady. Damn her into whatever creative torments have ever been invented for priests to wish on their theological opponents, all simultaneously, for ever and always, let it be done.
Aya is quite aware that she'd revise this opinion if her opinions had any power over the fate of the old lady. Since they do not, she will stand here and silently call down curses.
She was supposed to be willed to herself. She had plans. She was going to sleep in the temple attic and work for the post office and save up enough to go to Carthapane. She was pretty sure she could be enrolled in a college by twenty-five, doing something useful by thirty - she was undecided pending her more formal education between illegal human export and working within the system for debt relief or purchase-to-manumit programs -
And now she'll just count herself lucky if she gets bought by someone with loose enough security that she can flee over the border without falling into a magic, attempt to teach herself Tsopixi, and do - she doesn't have a plan after that, now. Her plan went up in smoke when the old lady's will was read and she was left to the idiot grandson and the idiot grandson traded her to a reseller for enough to cover his bad investments. She can't go work for the post office with marked heel and no papers.
And she is keenly aware that she is sixteen going on seventeen, which is a much different situation than she faced when she was on the block a decade ago being advertised for her literacy, assessed for her ability to take dictation.
She shifts position. The chain between her collar and the wall jangles. She watches people going by, browsing, reading the sign posted in front of her.
"Ayabel" - 125 seo
16 yrs, healthy
Reads & writes (Esevi, some Ancient Sudre)
10 yrs housegirl experience, previously farming
No history of rebelliousness
Yeah. No history of rebelliousness, because the old lady was old and coming up on the end of her life, the old lady let her read books and left her enough free time to think and draw, the old lady was going to will her to herself and then she could get started on her life.
This history won't last long, Aya doesn't think.
Most especially if anyone looks at the second line and brings her home for the obvious thing.
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namesthesky
namesthesky
"Maybe burning down the house?" She laughs a little. "Well, I have no arsonist tendencies, don't worry."
namesthesky
Aya starts to say something: "When -"
And then she stops and closes her mouth.
And then she stops and closes her mouth.
namesthesky
Aya scrunches towards herself a little.
"My prior owner - led me to believe I'd be left to myself when she died. I was thinking of asking you a similar question but I'm not sure I want to."
"My prior owner - led me to believe I'd be left to myself when she died. I was thinking of asking you a similar question but I'm not sure I want to."
anotherbreeze
"If I'll free you when my father dies, you mean? I will," he says. "But you don't have to believe it if you don't want to risk the disappointment."
namesthesky
She nods.
"I was going to -" She stops again. "I don't know if you actually want to know or if you were just mentioning not knowing earlier for some other reason."
"I was going to -" She stops again. "I don't know if you actually want to know or if you were just mentioning not knowing earlier for some other reason."
anotherbreeze
"Well - if you'd rather keep it to yourself, don't mind me. But yeah, I kind of do."
namesthesky
"If she'd willed me to myself I was going to sleep in the temple attic and I had a job half-lined-up at the post office and I was going to save up and go to school. She left me to her grandson instead and he passed me along to a reseller at the market where Berete found me."
anotherbreeze
He absorbs this, looking thoughtful, possibly sympathetic.
Then he blinks and says, "—You know, I don't even know your name? I just noticed that."
Then he blinks and says, "—You know, I don't even know your name? I just noticed that."
namesthesky
"Oh - I thought Berete might have mentioned it at some point. I'm Ayabel. Aya is fine."
namesthesky
"Anyway. I'll let you know if I want something and can't get it myself, and otherwise stay out of the way, is I think what we've concluded?"
anotherbreeze
"I guess so," he says. "The staying out of the way part isn't actually mandatory, but if it seems like it'd be easier, then yeah."
namesthesky
"Well - I don't want to annoy you. You might not own me on paper but you can probably get rid of me if you set your mind to it and most of the next options are a good few steps down."
namesthesky
"Which is very nice of you, which is another reason to want not to annoy you."
namesthesky
"You seemed well past annoyed right after you were surprised with a person for your birthday."
anotherbreeze
"Yeah," he says. "Sure. So the first step in making me that angry is to become Duke of Viore, and then arrange for me to be your only child, and then spend seventeen years treating me like my only purpose in life is to behave exactly how you want me to at all times, and then you'll have no trouble at all pissing me off. People who aren't my father don't annoy me that much because they're just - they work on a completely different scale."
namesthesky
"...Is he likely to use me in the project of attempting to manage you or did he mean it when he talked about keeping me out from underfoot?"