Rexi and Talon

By Onyx Tao

Jack: Rexi and Talon by Onyx Tao is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://onyx-tao.sofurry.com.

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Talon

Talon looked up at the Corynten magistrate in disbelief. "What? You can't be ..."

"Talon Allondre, you just signed for your mother's estate," Magistrate Jaziel said. "That estate consists of the contents of her shop, the remaining five days of the lease, her accounts, if any, and her debts. With her death, those debts are now callable - that means the creditors can collect them immediately - and apparently they've been purchased by this gentleman. Master Guile." The magistrate gestured at a stack of papers.

"Yes, Your Honor. That is all of Madam Allondre's debts. All immediately callable, except for the one to her dressmaker," Guile said obsequiously. "All signed over to me, and ... due."

"Can you pay them?"

"No," said Talon. "But ..."

"Your Honor, if he can't pay ..."

"Do you have any prospect of paying them within ... say, two weeks?" asked Magistrate Jaziel.

"I can make the original schedule, Your Honor, but ... no. I can't raise that much money in two weeks."

"Then how do you propose to pay Master Guile?"

"I ... may I have some time?"

"Not unreasonable," said the Magistrate. "Master Guile? Will you give Master Allondre a few days to consider his options?"

"No, Your Honor. In my experience, debtors in his position run away. It's ever so tedious, and it cuts into one's margins. Given his youth, the recent - unfortunate, of course - events in his family, he no longer has ties to the community, and ..."

"Quite right, a flight risk, yes,"

"I have a shop!"

"You had a shop," the magistrate said. "It is now Master Guille's shop." The magistrate shook his head. "I am sorry, Talon, but the sale of the shop will never clear these debts."

"Most unlikely," Master Guille added. "Most unlikely."

"If I just had time ..."

The Magistrate shook his head. "You don't have time, unless Master Guille grants it."

Talon looked at the debtman. "What do you want? You're only going to lose money if you force the sale."

"Exactly," purred Master Guille. "And you are responsible for my loss. I petition the court to grant me possession of Talon Allondre as forfeit in settlement in full."

"What? No!"

"Unless you have some way to pay Master Guille ..."

Talon shook his head, no.

"Then it is so ordered. I'll have the paperwork ..."

"If Your Honor will pardon the liberty, I've had it prepared in the chance it might lighten the Court's load." said Master Guille, handing the Magistrate six sheets of paper.

The magistrate looked over the papers, and nodded, signing them. "Much appreciated, Master Guille."

"Always a pleasure appearing before you, Your Honor."

"A pleasure," agreed the Magistrate.

"Wait," said Talon, but the Magistrate cut him off.

"Master Guille! Control your property, or I'll be forced to fine you."

"Ah, not to worry," said the man, gesturing at the audience and two large men came forward. "Gag him and get him down to the floor, boys."

Talon tried not to think about what had happened after that, but it was hard. They'd slammed him into a prison wagon with three other just-enslaved men and two slips, and they hadn't been gentle. He'd have bruises up and down his arms just from the trip to the wagon. The trip to the slave market had been nearly as bad, the wheels jolting over every cobble in the street, tossing him into the other prisoners and the hard walls of the wagon itself.

Getting pulled out, stripped, chained, and then shoved - at least a little more gently - into an iron cage hadn't helped either. Nor had all the snickering about how fucking valuable a half-elf was. They'd see how damn valuable he was when they tried to sell him looking like this. Sell him! Bastards. He should have realized something was going to happen. His mother had always told him to watch what he signed, here. Read it carefully. If you don't completely understand it, don't sign it. Get another opinion.

He had read it. He had thought he'd understood it. Damnation! Why hadn't his mother told him about the debts ... no, that wasn't fair. None of them were big, or unreasonable - just the day-to-day needs of a fabric store. It's just when they were all added up together, with that damnable due-on-call clause. And of course, here in Corentyn, just like every other part of Cheliax, there would always be someone ready to take advantage of you. His one attempt to escape - hardly escape, just stop a slaver from taking his clothes - had resulted in a caning that had left blood dripping down his back, and his being blindfolded and chained into a kneeling position on the floor.

Where, he thought mordantly, he'd gather yet more bruises on his knees and shins. But the bruises from earlier were starting to show, so the guild-slaver wanted to give him some time to recover before training him.

Just the thought made his stomach twist into knots.