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The world was a regicide board. Strategies, counters, plots, traps, knights, kings, queens, pawns, castles and priests. Territory gained, territory lost. Territory relinquished, territory seized. It was gambits and precise plans, executed at precise times to obtain precise results.

Yzetz Goldclaw, son of Skywing Tempest Hoard and the Ronyez Gemshaper was perhaps one of the best at it. Many years of practice, he would simply say, though it was far more than that.

His scales shone like gold coins as they traded hands, reflecting in the afternoon light and glittering like a million cut crystals. His eyes were an almost pure sapphire blue at the irises, currently constricted around his pupils in narrow, serpentine slits.

His Sire and Dame had been of wealth and repute, and in typical draconic fashion, had shared none of their own success with him bar that required for his initial survival. Once he was old enough to make his own way, he was fully expected to, and he had excelled at the task too. Yzetz had amassed a small hoard of note and excelled with his swift tongue and eye for formalities with the lending clans, acting as something of a retriever for traders who thought the conditions of their loans were suggestions.

"I'm surprised they sent you of all people, considering..." The bold, ruby red dragon across the board from him made a few lazy plays, one hand over his chess pieces, the other upon the timer. Yzetz had been magnanimous in giving the elder Scion an extra minute. Clearly, his generosity had been in error.

"The fact that you are clan kin to my brother had nothing to do with my appointment to this task, Scion Cloud-Razor-Red-Devil Son. There are thirty of us at this conference, not including yourself, purely on clan business. The elder Otharni would permit us only threescore. Too many debt collectors apparently discourage business." He chuckled flatly, reptilian tail scraping roughly across the wooden deck of High Fortune. It was no secret that the elder wyrm Orthani wanted little to do with the clans, but even he begrudgingly accepted a selection of their representatives' free reign to conduct their business across his oasis.

The clans, in turn, begrudgingly accepted the conditions upon their movements and what level of debts could be collected upon. It would do neither the erstwhile wyrm nor the clans any good to sully the reputation of the conference by infesting it with dragons looking to collect upon every copper drake that was owed to them.

As it stood, Isiat's own debt was significant. It was also coming due. There would be no overdue timeframe allotted.

"Isiat himself told you to take it from his vault last time we were in the Clanhome. What happened to that?"

"It is not such a simple thing Scion, Brother-of-my-brother." He used the draconic tongue's word for the title, a low, snaking series of rasping syllables that strung out like a pleased purr mingling with a serpentine hiss. They were not directly blood, but rather a bonded brotherhood, or at least his own brother's bond. Yzetz had met the ruby drake but twice before. To many within the clans, a debt collector visiting a friend was considered poor form. He moved a piece upon the board, and Scion, quick as a coiled snake, countered his move and snapped the timer almost before the needle even had a chance to rotate.

Yzetz growled and tried a different play.

"One does not simply 'take' from another clan member's hoard, debt or not. You know how our kind is. There is a reason the vault doors are the way they are. Each key is cast only once, and once cast, cannot simply be remade without great expense and effort. There is more than steel and gold and craftsmanship involved and you know it. If Isiat wishes his debts settled, he must do it in person and oversee the transaction himself. No offense, but I wouldn't trust myself to handle someone else's debt without slicing a cut for myself..."

Scion rolled his eyes at that, but Yzetz was unperturbed by the other dragon's casual dismissal. Among their kind, this was how business often went. Neither side would admit to having the weaker hand unless forced.

"Regardless, I am here, and my job is as clear as day. Arrange Isiat's return to the clans, or the clans will arrange it for him, and they will reclaim what is owed, one way or another."

Scion was perhaps one of a bare handful of people in the world to whom the threat of intervention by the clans didn't warrant so much as a raised eyebrow.

"Do the clans plan to send a fighting barge to recover it then? This is a Mass Conveyor, Ee-sets, Tornado Hoard, Gemcarver child." Yzetz bit his tongue at the deliberate insult as the other dragon butchered his namesake, resisting the urge to challenge Scion right then and there. The blade at his side would have been a simple thing to draw, though he suspected all it would have earned him was a face full of flame and fist. Clan lineage was important to their culture. Even more so, however, was the role of host and guest.

And it wouldn't do to punch the host. Or have the host attack the guest. A deft sweep of Yzetz's hand traded a knight for the other dragon's queen. Let him fume about that oversight. The clans were not to be so lightly dismissed, and he'd show that arrogant, red-scaled basta-

"Checkmate." Scion bounded his own knight across the board to a square so recently defended by Yzetz's own. The gold dragon stared slack jawed at the board for a few moments.

Scion pushed his chair back with a squeal of wood across the floor and offered out his hand.

"We will return to the clans when our business here is concluded, and not before. You're welcome to stay and make use of the merchants and entertainment aboard until then." The offer was as polite and sincere as the Dragon could manage, both threat and firm rebuttal in one. He would not be budged.

"I hear there's a good whorehouse on the lower decks. Just ask for Shael, and tell her I sent you. She'll show you a good time."

In Scion's native tongue, this was the politest manner of telling Yzetz and the rest of the clans to politely fuck off out of his business.

---

The world was warm. Warm, soft, and furry. A tail brushing over her nose slowly threatened to tickle Shadi out of her catnap as she lay sprawled beneath smooth cotton blankets and trapped between the wall of the room and the plump coyote she was snuggled up against.

"Nrrhhmmm... Five more minutes." She murmured dozily, opening her maw and playfully snagging the offending appendage between her teeth as it made its next pass.

"It's already past breakfast, pretty thing... And unlike you, I have to work today." Came Larise's singsong teasing, as she wriggled back against the warm feline behind her. After a second of trying to get comfortable, she rolled entirely in Shadi's arms and placed a delicate kiss upon the tip of her nose. Shadi murmured her approval, and in a bid to keep the coyote in bed just a little longer, threw her arms about the sandy canine's head to drag her into a lazy and slow kissing session.

"Mhmm~ That's not-" Larise rolled her eyes and gave up trying, cupping the lioness's exposed breasts in her paws and sharply pinching both of the cat's nipples. Shadi let out a squeak of surprise and pushed into the kiss firmly, rolling on top of the coyote bitch to straddle her waist. Larises's hips rolled up to meet her, grinding playfully.

"No, no! No more or I'll start charging you for it." Larise sputtered as he pushed Shadi back with a playfully frustrated growl. It wasn't that she didn't like the attention, but the time-

"And what if I start charging you for it instead, hmm? I bet my rate is much higher..." Shadi bragged with a devious flick of her tail. She was growing bolder by the day it seemed, or perhaps, more likely by Larise's logic, she was simply becoming like a cat accustomed to a new home, and strutting around as if she owned the place. Considering how often she had Isiat by the knot, it might not have been entirely inaccurate.

"Mmmm, you're good, but-" Larise paused, and Shadi let out a surprised squeal that devolved into a soft, pleasured moan when the cunning coyote's fingers found her slit. "I'd wager that I'm still the better lay. I've got a few years of experience on you there, sweet thing."

The wicked bitch's tongue lashed over Shadi's bared chest in the morning light shining in through the porthole, leaving a streak of glistening saliva and smoothed fur that led to the little tan lioness's tight nipple, glazing it softly with the warm muscle. She let her head fall back and rested her weight on her palms, pressing their sexes together wetly as they shifted back and forth in an erotic dance of their own, bliss tingling along their nerves.

The females tangled themselves in each other, lips pressing hotly against flesh and fur, teasing, nipping and suckling, paws roaming like the blind exploring something new with their touch.

At last, Larise relented, groaning and shoving Shadi off to her side, pinning the feline against the bedsheets with a wicked grin.

"Now, stop so I can get dressed, you harlot!"

---

Scion was a beast of habit before all else. When he woke in his quarters amidships of the top deck beneath the dirigibles of High Fortune, he spent his first hour till sunrise preparing for his day, taking his morning meal, polishing his scales, and reviewing his itinerary.

Thanks to the airship's heating systems that ran throughout the massive vessel, sunning himself to raise his cold blood's temperature to a workable degree was nothing but a reptilian habit resigned to the past. Besides that, if it was cold enough, he'd simply find someone warm and fluffy to keep him company through the night.

Many mornings, he would indulge in some leisure before his first meetings. He'd run the numbers for the day with Isiat, and discuss any critical matters needing his attention. If needed, he might throw his weight and influence around some to get wheels turning. On particularly slow days when they flew high above the ground, he would race the gryphons from below deck, chasing and playing tag between clouds and around the ship. He was still fast enough to beat them in straight flight, if not an outright dive from the heavens.

But those were the slow days.

Today had not been one of those days. Dealing with his kin was not in the dragon's definition of leisure time. In fact, nobody he knew would have considered it as such. Dragons were... Well, dragons, and insufferably so, especially anyone representing the clans. Looking out over the railing of the airship, across the slowly dwindling sea of airships and tents that had at least begun to shrink as the trader's conference came closer to its designated end time, he could understand why the Elder Orthani had opted to sever himself from them entirely.

Even in his own role, his contacts with the clans were kept minimal, and preferably, as brief as possible. Isiat had the lust for wealth of a dragon, but with the perspective of one of the short-lived species. He kept true to his word when it was given, and truthfully, he had always been a kind friend. Even when they bickered, no resentment simmered for more than a day. It was more than he could say for most of his own kind, and perhaps why, when the over-finely garbed slave had stumbled into the tavern that fateful night attempting to disguise himself as a merchant, Scion had opted to help him, rather than alert the guards.

The crimson dragon chuckled as a breeze kicked up sand, tickling his nostrils. He raised a paw to shield his eyes from the abrasive specks. Perhaps it could have all gone differently, and yet...

Reaching down, he drew the small, bejeweled dagger from its sheath, turning it end over end as the light sparkled from the gem-studded pommel.

"Such a small thing to be at the centre of so many events in its time, wouldn't you agree?" He asked rhetorically.

Shadi about jumped out of her skin at the question, the short feline having been nearly soundlessly approaching him from behind. Nearly, soundlessly. He'd caught the peculiar rasp of her tail as it swished across the wooden top-deck. Few others aboard had such a long tail. It made it a rather distinct sound he'd begun to associate with the pretty little dancing slave.

"It... it is. Good morning, Scion." Shadi said, giving a small curtsey. His eyes ran across her, from the tips of her brown ears all the way down to her wriggling toes in a pair of new sandals her master had no doubt purchased for her. The dragon scoffed with a quiet chuckle. Never before had he seen Isiat dote so much on a single slave from his own coffers.

Clearly, the damned fool of a fox is infatuated with her... He mused to himself, though as his eyes lingered, he could hardly assign blame. It truly would have been a waste had she been left in that canine castle to serve as little more than a breeder to hasten her own kind's extinction. After all, the father in such couplings almost always determined the species of the child. Hybrids, while a topic of much debate and theory, simply didn't happen in nature. Without fail, it was always either-or.

Far too pretty to be kept locked away. She was going to be the reason behind the downfall of Isiat's entire business at this rate, he was sure of it.

"Good morning, pretty cat. Aren't you usually with your master by now?"

The lioness just grinned cattily up at the much, much taller dragon.

"I thought that's what I was doing?" She replied coyly.

Scion's grin split his scaled snout, a single claw reaching out to trace almost inquisitively along her jawline. Obediently, she raised her chin, and let him, a soft purr rumbling from within her chest. Perhaps this was exactly why Isiat was in the situation he was.

"Hmm. Just so, though less so now. Isiat has been slowly buying out my share of you with the additional profits you've been bringing in. I'd almost be offended if he weren't paying me double for every share." He rumbled, giving her a look. It was indeed a juicy morsel of information, one that Scion was sure he could have extracted a good price from the little dancer, but one couldn't catch a fish without any bait after all... Her eyes lit up, now ablaze with curiosity just as he'd wanted. Playing right into his paws, she sidled up against him, still purring as she rubbed herself against his waist like a housecat demanding affection might.

"Oh? Has he now? You sound jealous." She said with her best smile. "Do you not think I am worth your coin, Master dragon?" Her sweet, singsong voice snapped up his bait, and her own trap closed immediately around him. For a change, he found himself biting his tongue.

Yes, this was exactly how Isiat had gotten himself cornered by the quick thinking, devious little queen.

He parried her dangerous pitfall with his next words, avoiding a blunder so many males would have walked right into.

"Were it not also my desire to see you freed at the end of your debt, Shadi, I may have considered keeping you. I balance all the books after all. How easy it would be for me to simply let that debt accumulate on paper, despite your... Enthusiastic... work ethic."

Shadi, seemingly satisfied by the measured response and the threat she knew full well he'd never make good on, nodded and inspected the jeweled dagger still in his paws wordlessly. Without a word, he sheathed it on his belt, and it simply seemed to disappear into his waistband beneath the rest of the dragon's finery. Better not to let the clever ones get any sort of leverage.

"Well, Isiat hasn't sent for me yet. I was simply considering going to his bed for my morning nap, maybe the greenhouse, and then I saw you. What about you? I'm not used to seeing you outside of his office most days. What do you get up to?" She chattered away to no aim that Scion could discern, his reptilian tail giving a slow swish.

"We'll be departing a few weeks from today. Isiat has business in other regions of the world, and with the clans that will not be put on hold. You've done well since we've arrived. Our profits are up nearly a full ten per cent over last year's conference, much of which, I attribute to your clever bookwork. You never mentioned you were business-minded." It was a statement as much as an inquiry, and the way he eyed her made clear he wasn't going to accept a run about excuse.

Shadi gave a modest shrug, turning her back to the railing so that her tail could drape down over the edge of the airship.

"Dragon's are not slaves. Your words." There was a hint of barb to her words, but nothing that contained any real venom. She was understandably still sore over her situation, regardless of how well she had adapted to it.

"You've never had to come up with creative ways to sell yourself so you could have a collar taken off your neck and not be called property. You've never been snatched away from your family, starved, raped, beaten, talked down to... You are a dragon, after all. What would you know of the lives of sheep?"

He paused thoughtfully, not answering her at once, but instead measuring his words carefully against her arguments. In the words of the layman, it wouldn't do well for him to piss her off this late into their game.

"I know more than most. I have not experienced it personally, but I have seen the effects of it in yourself and the other indentured crew... At first, I was against Isiat releasing them. But I have served alongside him for many years, and this is his ship, not mine. We may be partners, but he has a higher stake and share of everything. I made myself listen at his insistence, to the stories of Amaril, of Larise, of others below deck. Not all of the slaves we purchased were Isiat's choice alone. I have not lived it myself, but I understand it to the extent one can without being branded or collared. But I am not my kin, nor am I who I once was before I met Isiat."

His nod was sincere, and he made sure to speak in clear, even tones. Shadi considered his answer for a few moments more.

"So how did he win this airship?"

"The old captain was a fool, and a drunkard, who did many things better than he played cards. I merely suggested the wager, nothing more. As a person, I would place your worth far above his." His chuckle was a deep, baritone rumble of mirth, and Shadi couldn't help but smile at it. There was far more to the story, but she knew it wouldn't be so easy to pry it from him. She tried a different approach.

"So what exactly is my worth to the ship, hmmm?"

Scion grinned in delight at the unexpected change of course for her. She was catching on quickly, that much was evident as anything. Soon she might be able to beat Isiat at his own game, assuming she hadn't already got him exactly where she wanted...

"Would you like me to show you?" He asked, golden eyes narrowing. Without waiting for a response, he took the little lioness by the paw and led her across the deck.

---

Despite having explored a great deal of high fortune in her spare time with Larise, Shadi's mental map of the massive vessel was still woefully incomplete. The exact whereabouts of Scion's own quarters had been something of a mystery. She had expected something frivolous and imposing, as would have befitted the dragon.

As it was, the small, unassuming cabin on the top deck with small windows set into the walls was... not what she had imagined in her mind. Inside it was even less so.

The dragon's bed was fancy enough, sure, but all of his other worldly possessions seemed to consist of a footlocker at the bottom of it, and a simple desk and seat, a single glow tube humming above it.

"It's uh..." Spartan. Bare. What the hell kind of dragon lives with fewer things than a slave like me?

"Very... cozy. Space efficient." Damn if she hadn't had to take her time to come up with something that might not insult the dragon's apparently minimalistic living conditions. Even as a slave she had more furnishings in her small cabin! She glanced about for any signs of, well, anything! Surely no proud dragon would live like this, right? Least of all one as smug as Scion. The thought simply refused to mesh with his personality as she understood it.

As if reacting to her readily apparent confusion, he laughed, the great red dragon stretching his wings out to touch the opposite walls.

"You can say it, you know? It's nothing compared to my residence in the Clanhome, but... there is a reason for it being so bare." He grinned mischievously and ran one hand down the wall, sliding a panel down with his touch. There was a small combination lock there, which with a few deft twists, he solved. The floor hissed and made Shadi jump as if a snake had suddenly slithered underneath her. The entire floor seemed to drop a fraction of an inch, before one by one, a segment of the floorboards dropped downwards, each successive board sliding lower as they collapsed into a concealed stairway.

Scion stepped down them into the hidden passage without hesitation, following the slowly curving corridor down into the very heart of the ship.

"Well? Are you coming or not? You wanted to see your worth, didn't you?"

Curious, and just a little excited, Shadi quickly bounded along after him, her short legs making a rapid pattering of footsteps against the stairs.

She wasn't sure what exactly she expected, but surely a hidden room for a dragon was no small thing. People only hid things that were worth something.

What she didn't expect was the sheer size of the steel-walled chamber. It must have easily crossed 3 floors vertically, and quite a few of the horizontal sections as well. Suddenly, some of the strange hallways around the midship made more sense. Floor to ceiling shelves with sliding ladders on tracks ran the length of the walls, many of them filled with books and binders of papers. Lamps suspended from the ceiling bathed the cavernous chamber in the soft pale light, like a midday sun's glow.

And then there was the treasure.

"A thousand Gold Draskars take up a decent amount of space. The coinage in this room makes up a not-insignificant portion of the ship's total tonnage. The easiest way for the clans to find counterfeit coinage is by weight." The dragon explained, stepping between the waist-high piles of loose coins. "When hoarded, it is... Slightly more, but I personally enjoy the draconic touch it gives the vault, don't you?"

They glittered and gleamed like a true dragon's hoard, and now, she understood why Scion was so often out of sight of the rest of the ship.

"This is simply the reserve we keep aboard, mind you. It bankrolls the indentured payments, crew, and any physical transactions that may occur. Isiat's own hoard in the clan home is greater still, but each vessel like this was constructed with a vault at its heart. Few dragons enjoy being separated from their hoard." He turned and pulled her along.

"That small scattering over there?" The dragon indicated a smaller pile that simply looked as if it had tumbled from one of the larger piles near it. "That is about the size of your present debt. The larger pile beside it is about the sum that the clans are demanding as repayment for his last loan. He knows the draconic game well enough. It's easier to spend someone else's coin than your own."

When he laughed, it was deep-chested, like a mountain rumbling. Idly, Shadi poked one of the coins out of her path with her toes, as if afraid to reach down and pick it up. And coins weren't half of it. To say it was a dragon's hoard in every sense of the word was accurate. Fine tapestries of art, elegant, shining swords and blades, intricate woodworks. Artisan goods of all forms dotted the room seemingly at random, and Shadi was all but certain Scion knew where each and every bit of it was kept. The dragon was like a catalogue of knowledge, assuming it was knowledge that was worth something to him.

"My main issue with you Shadi is that you are spoiled. Isiat has spent more coin on you than some of the multi-year tenure slaves aboard. He is enamoured with you. Infatuated even. And it lapses his better judgment. As a responsible, loyal servant, it is in your interest as well as mine to ensure that his judgment is based on sound logic. You are more important, perhaps, to many factions in the larger world than you might understand or grasp. The felines want you for obvious reasons. The canines want you to control your father and his raids. I want you here because you make Isiat and myself a great deal of coin, and Isiat..." Scion scoffed at himself, as if unable to say the words.

"What?"

"Isiat wants you because, despite all else, your company makes him happy, which makes you simultaneously one of the most dangerous and valuable pieces on the board." The dragon had stopped beside a stone and glass-topped regicide set. The pieces were made from carved precious stones, and a single, talon tipped finger rested upon the crown of the queen, rolling it slowly on its base like a spinning top.

With a low sigh, he ceased rocking it, and it rattled in an increasingly high pitch before finally settling back in place upon the board, still again.

"I do not wish harm upon him. Much as he might irk me at times, he has been my friend for many years. But when your debt is paid, your collar will be removed, and you will leave, correct?" He looked up at her with blazing golden eyes, searching over her for something, though what it was, she was not sure. The large room suddenly felt all too claustrophobic, like the cells and caves beneath the castle. Her tail almost reflexively curled around her legs where she stood.

"That is my plan. I'm nobody's property, despite what this-" She dragged one of her feline claws along the rim of her collar, tracing the various symbols hammered into the soft gold. Her useful traits, as decided by the canines. "-might say. Isiat might be a good man, but this isn't my home. To my family. My friends..."

"And if the war should shift favours? What then?" He asked suddenly, seemingly done with that answer, having heard all he needed to, and moved right on to his next question. His words brought to the fore of her mind an uncomfortable reality she had deliberately avoided thinking too much about.

Even as the thought crossed her mind though, she knew the answer before she opened her mouth. Perhaps, truthfully, she'd known the answer for a long time, but in putting words to her feelings, she solidified them defiantly against the torment her captors had delighted in inflicting upon her.

"Better to fall with them then. The canines won't catch me a second time. I'd sooner die." She answered after a few moments, nodding firmly. Gone was the anxiety she had felt just moments ago. The room no longer felt cramped and constricting. She met the dragon's gaze without a hint of uncertainty.

She met him with defiance, and Scion, pausing, made clear note of that.

He let out a thoughtful hum and nodded approvingly.

"Hmm. Good. Rest with me a while. Then you can run along to Isiat. He's busy with the last few clients this morning, but none that require your particular charms for him to swindle." Scion's grin cut across his muzzle, and unceremoniously, he fell backwards onto a pile of coins, sending them scattering across the floor.

"Ahhh. So that explains why the piles are everywhere." Shadi tutted cheekily.

"Also because they look better when one can appreciate their full majesty, like a dragon." As he said the words, he spread his wings out and stretched, lazily undoing the buttons of his top.

"I hope you're not expecting me to lay on a pile of metal coins while you... do whatever you've planned." Shadi frowned. Of the many places she'd been made to have sex, by far, that looked like possibly the least comfortable.

Scion let out a belly laugh, batting his paw at the air dismissively.

"No, Shadi. I do not. I expect you to lay on me and be a warm mammal while I take a rest. Though if you wanted to ride me, well... I wouldn't object."

Shadi harrumphed playfully. Despite seeming cold and direct at times, truly, Scion had never been mean or cruel to her. As dragons went, she trusted him to be on the better end of the scale.

"Only if you're going to pay me triple."

"You're good Shadi, but I'm not paying you more of my gold. You're getting plump and accustomed to being spoiled. When we paid for your transfer, you would have been passable as skin and bones. You're getting round and soft, and I can't even deny myself, it is an attractive quality, BUT, you are spoiled. It's unbecoming of a gold collar like yourself to be a brat." His grumbling went unanswered as Shadi crawled her way up onto his scaly chest, letting her paws knead into his belly in a very feline way as she made herself comfortable.

"Mmhmm. Well if you stop paying me so damn well for being a brat, I might just start believing you." She purred sweetly back, resting her head beneath the crook of the dragon's neck, already purring with her eyes shut.

---

"So, I think you should move into my quarters- No... Not too direct. Shadi. We'll be leaving here soon, and the desert nights are col- No, come on. As if that would work." Isiat smacked his forehead with his palm, sighing as he paced around his cabin.

Twelve steps to the door. Turn. Twelve steps to the desk. Turn. Eight steps to the chaise. Turn. Ten steps to the bedroom suite. Turn.

One two three four five Step. One two don't trip on the chair like a fool- Four five six seven- Fuck!

He yelped the curse aloud and repeated it over in a dozen different languages and four separate dialects, before sitting heavily in the ornate seat that had assaulted his toe so that he could massage the spot that would no doubt end up bruising.

He was still nursing the spot when a knock sounded on his cabin's doorway, heavy, authoritative. He hissed another curse and made two quick guesses of who it might actually be.

"Enter."

As it turned out, he was wrong on both counts. The slender, matronly coyote hadn't even been in his top twenty guesses.

"Bad time?" Larise asked, her frizzy tail giving a slow swish from side to side. He waved her in and gave a dismissive grunt.

"Only if I'd broken my toe rather than just stubbed it. How can I help Larise?" He laughed off the still throbbing pain, and moved over to his desk, fetching a glass decanter of brandy on the way. He poured two glasses before he sat, and slid one across to her. She took it, but hesitated before taking a sip.

"Well, you told me to come to you to keep you updated on Shadi. Naturally, I'm here about another temporary loan." She shot him a grin that could only mean trouble for both of them. Isiat rolled his eyes and reached under his desk, sliding one of the drawers open. From within that, he lifted a false floor and pulled up a wooden box. When he set it on the velvet-lined desk, it made a heavy clunk of stacked coins shifting.

"Do you ever plan to repay me for your debt entirely?"

"One day. Not today." Larise smiled a coyote grin, running a paw along the length of the thick metal collar that bound her neck. "Though sincerely, what would High Fortune be without me?"

"Less crowded? Not a daycare? At least two per cent more high class. Fewer scrapes, bruises, abrasions and fractures for Matthew to fix. Quieter?" Isiat checked them off on his fingers casually as he listed the many, many things High Fortune would be without her.

Larise reached over and playfully swiped her paw at his ears. Isiat made no move to avoid it, letting them spring back up with a laugh. Any other slave owner might have taken her hands for such a show, even playful. Isiat was not them, and never would be. Larise had already done her time in hell long before he purchased her.

"Less crowded... actually, that's part of why I'm here, and why I want the loan. I want to take a loan for the permanent cabin against my collar." She spoke quickly, nervously, as if unsure that it was the right choice. Isiat nodded quietly, his ears perked. He took a sip to lengthen the pause while he worked out how best to respond, the dark liquor burning down his throat.

"So you've settled on staying then?" He sincerely doubted the coyote bitch would ever leave his ship once she started having children. She'd been working on gathering funds for a more long term solution to her wanton fertility for some time.

Larise nodded, before tucking her chin against her ample chest as she found something decidedly interesting on the floor to stare at rather than meet his gaze.

"I can't do it anywhere else. I'm not a fighter Isiat, you know that... For me to try and make it out there on my own, I'd be taken advantage of and right back into a collar before I knew it, being sent off to who knows where, and what of the kids then? I'd rather spend my life in this collar if it meant I could stay here and know for sure my children would be safe."

Isiat just nodded quietly, his fingers drumming a quiet rhythm on his desk. Perhaps...

"Very well. Let me make you a deal. Fifteen hundred Draskars-" He paused as Larises's jaw dropped open, her eyes wide. He held up a paw quietly and continued speaking. It was no small sum at all to bring up.

"Twelve for the two large cabins, side by side, plus the last touches and adjustments it will need. It's on the third deck at the aft, large enough for you and yours. I'll have engineering put additional doors in for privacy and to connect the living spaces. You'll be comfortable there."

Larise wrung her wrists in her paws, as if rubbing at shackle sores that the poor girl no doubt still felt from before his time as her owner.

"And the last three?" She said, though her eyes already knew the answer.

"That is for your collar. You're working for yourself now, and you can just pay me back as you have been. No strings attached. Scion will hate it, but I'll deal with that later..."

"I want to keep it on!" She blurted out in a hurry, looking almost panicked at the vulpine as her paws went to her neck, pressing against the thick copper band that looped her throat in a single, solid circlet. She gripped it as if suddenly terrified by the notion of the reassuring weight no longer being there.

It was different for everyone he supposed... His own had been a blessing to be rid of, though it was easier to hide a brand than a collar. The brand, however, couldn't be so neatly removed. Mack had once offered to cut it away, but the risk of it causing more long term issues was greater than the reward.

Isiat offered her a reassuring, gentle smile, gesturing towards it.

"It's included in the price. What you do with it is up to you. I'll even let you keep my mark struck into it unaltered. Are you sure you wouldn't rather have it melted down? There are some artisans on the forge decks who could have it turned into some truly beautiful jewelry, or-"

"I don't want it touched. I do want my freedom, but..." Isiat mercifully stopped her short of having to awkwardly explain herself.

"You don't want anyone else to have to worry about it unless you tell them. I understand. You know, despite my joking Larise, you'll always have a home here, no matter how many offspring you squeeze out." His smile was a sincere one, and quietly, he scrawled out a draft agreement on a piece of parchment, the long feathered quill making a soft scratching as he signed in the details. When he was done, he slid it across to the coyote.

Her eyes scanned across the paper cautiously. He could hardly blame her, after how she had been sold into slavery, to begin with.

"No catches, no hidden clauses. Like I said, Scion, will hate every letter of notarizing it."

"So what then... Are you getting out of the deal?" The sandy coyote eyed him warily for a moment. "This is very uncharacteristic of you."

"It is, isn't it?" He said with a delighted sort of grin. "Scion would say I'm a fool. No collateral but your history, no rug to pull out from under you, hell, I'm even including meal service access for your pups until they begin working themselves. The overhead alone would make the dragons wince in sympathy."

"That doesn't answer why." She took the direct route, cutting through his bullshit playful charms, though her own wry little smile and wagging tail betrayed perhaps just a touch of hope and joy.

"No, it doesn't. Without you Larise, Shadi wouldn't be nearly so favourable towards me."

"You'd have found a way-" She started, and stopped when his dead serious gaze fixed her.

"Unlikely, but a few words between friends can make all the difference."

"You know I'd have done it even if you hadn't offered me the extra coin, right?" She gave him a sweet smile and signed her name on the dotted line. Isiat slid the paper away into his desk before she could change her mind.

All that done, she leaned across his desk and kissed him sweetly on the lips.

"Thank you. For everything."

"And everything yet as well? You're still living here, and despite not fathering any of your mongrels, I still seem to be the one paying the most to support them..." Isiat pointed out with a rather bluntly unamused look.

"Well, I mean... We can always change none of them being yours, you know?" She gave him a playfully seductive wink. Her paw reached out and ran teasingly along the length of his slender, vulpine muzzle.

Isiat knew far better than to put his dick anywhere near that coyote in season. He chased her away with a swatting bap from a flurry of his tails. She laughed as she danced away, her own tail going at about a million miles an hour.

"Alright now, get out! Damn harlot! And if you see Shadi, send her up to me. I expected her to be here by now!"

She opened the door to leave as another figure stepped in. A steely gaze had Larise backing out of his way with a low courtesy, shrinking before the golden dragon.

"Hmm. And here Scion was saying you were indisposed to guests. What a happy coincidence." Yzetz muttered in fluent draconic, the low, rasping syllables sliding off the dragon's tongue sweet and yet full of dangerous promises, like honey on a flytrap.

Isiat clicked his tongue and motioned for Larise to make herself scarce. The coyote ducked out of the door, not needing to be told twice.

"Ahh, Yzetz. Honoured guest! Friend of my friend!" He responded with false cheer in kind, switching tongues as fast as a sparrow in flight changed direction. The draconic syllables were not made for muzzle such as his, and it was only through sheer focused effort that he spoke them half as fluently as he did. Each word was hissed with the distinct and notable accent of non-dragon kin, another reason he would never truly be at home among their kind.

"I see Scion is clearly not doing his damn job. Apparently, they will let anyone up here without an appointment these days." Isiat tried to hide the bubbling mass of irritation behind a vague attempt at humour. Truthfully, if he had the authority to do so, he wouldn't have let any from the clan's onboard without his say so. Penny pinchers least of all.

Regrettably, a line of his agreement with them stated explicitly he would do no such thing to those on official clan business.

"So it would seem. Entertaining yourself with your slaves seems quite below one with such a lofty code of honour as you, departed from the reality as far as it is."

Isiat didn't rise to the obvious bait, though his hackles bristled with irritation.

"Unlike most, I don't force my slaves to perform. What the hell do you want Yzetz? Scion made my stance abundantly clear, and the clans knew full well the conference would be occurring on these dates. It is unreasonable of them to insist a trader abandon his business during its busiest week." He quickly pivoted the conversation before he decided to strike the dragon and start a small war. If he'd have known in advance how the discussion would go, perhaps he might have done exactly that and damned the world for it.

"Well, the same thing the clans always want Isiat. Gold. But more specifically than that, if you're not going to settle your debts in a timely manner, the clans want High Fortune back."

---

Shadi hesitated on the edge of the floor hatch to Isiat's quarters. She could hear voices, and bickering ones at that, just on the other side. They were hissing back and forth in one of the dragon tongues, and then another, then a subdialect. She knew the play well. Isiat probably didn't even consciously realise he was doing it, and yet whoever it was he was speaking with didn't seem phased by the rapid switching of languages either. Perhaps the fox had finally met his match...

And that in itself worried her. Should she just open the hatch and try to defuse the situation a little? Would her owner appreciate the distraction, or would she be interrupting another of his schemes within schemes by butting in? He usually expected her around this time, but...

After a few moments longer, their argument seemed to reach its peak, and at last, she heard Isiat's frustrations boil over with a snarl and a muted shout through the floor hatch.

"Get the fuck out of my office!"

There were heavy footsteps, and Shadi quietly sat on the ladder, counting the seconds as they ticked by.

One, two, three, four, five...

She reached sixty, and finally rapped the back of her paw on the hatch, before twisting the mechanism and pushing it open.

Isiat didn't greet her right away, and it concerned her more than she rightly wanted to admit. He was facedown upon his bedsheets, his tails flicking every which way in no discernable pattern of any kind.

Without speaking, she went to him and sat in the small patch of sunlight by his side. Without looking, he fumbled his paw about on the sheets towards her and wrapped his fingers about her own.

"Oh, to be rid of our obligations, eh?" He chuckled halfheartedly, finally rolling on his side to look upon her. "You're late."

"Blame Scion. It wasn't my fault that he wanted to nap on his pile of gold... And how did he even get all of that in there?" She huffed, smoothing down the front of her dress.

"Dragons." Isiat explained as if somehow, invoking the mysterious and powerful creatures' name was enough to make anything happen. Now that she had seen more of the world with Isiat than she had ever thought to before, she knew there to be at least a certain level of truth behind that.

"It's always fucking Dragons, or getting fucked by them, in my experience. Figuratively or literally, you can take your pick... You have the luxury of getting paid in at least one of those situations." He sighed, as if wanting to say more, but when he remained silent, she didn't press him for answers. She could read a male well enough to know when he wanted to speak, and when he wanted something else. Looking into his icy irises, this was very much the second look.

"Well, I mean, Scion is nice enough on the eyes at least, but I can think of someone I'd rather get fucked by... Literally, and paid to do so, as well..." She teased him, and lay herself down by his side, before she rolled atop of him, and pinned the male beneath her, straddling his waist with her paws upon his shoulders. A hunger lit in his eyes, and before she knew it, they were all over each other.

Whatever troubles he had, they would wait, pushed aside by the sudden desire to indulge in a much more primal form of stress relief. Their clothes were tossed aside like an afterthought, barely even registering to either of them.

This was why he had paid so much for her after all, wasn't it? For her particular skills in distracting his clients. It was merely icing on the cake that she could use those skills to help distract him as well when he needed, and oh did he need her right then.

His paws roamed her body, rubbing and caressing every inch of her soft, tan fur, tweaking her nipples, tugging her down into his lap by her collar while he lavished her throat with rough, aggressive kisses. She moaned his name softly when he entered her, and cried it out to the ceiling when his rapid, savage thrusting brought her over the edge of bliss twice before his knot had even swollen fully.

He rolled with her and then it was his turn to pin her to the bed in a mating press, bearing his weight down into her and leveraging each thrust until he was battering at her core with his thick rod. His passionate snarls were a symphony all of their own, and submissively, she offered her neck to his teeth as he increased his brutal tempo to an almost fever pitch, the wooden bed beneath them groaning in protest of its abuse.

She saw stars again as his knot slammed against her already taut netherlips, and once more drew a lustful series of words in half a dozen languages from her lips, all of them encouraging him onwards. If he heard or understood the words or their meaning, she couldn't tell, but he pushed her down into the sheets with a growl as he loomed over her, possessively claiming her body as his.

With a final, powerful shove, her vision exploded into stars, mind clouding with bliss as he took her body again, warmth filling her inside while his panting filled her ears. She was pleasantly stuck to him now, body stretched taut around his invading knot, snuggly and securely keeping all he gave right where he wanted it to go.

At last, he slumped atop of her, paws and tails wrapping around her body like a warm, fluffy blanket as he pulled her to his chest, secure and tied to his little dancing slave. She couldn't help but giggle drowsily at the thought as she nuzzled his snout into the small of her neck and against the golden band of her collar.

At least with Isiat, he always took the time to cuddle if there was a choice. Perhaps there was something there, a certain fondness, a kindness that she hadn't thought to see again in her life while she had been in that awful castle. It was a shred of goodness in a world that had largely been tainted from her experience, and she clung to it like a boat on stormy seas.

Neither spoke for the longest time, though he gently nipped his teeth along her ears and neck, murmuring sweet nothings as they both came down from their highs. Perhaps... Staying aboard until it was safe to go home wouldn't be so bad. She could live with that.

In her mind, she counted the male upon her back breathing and was out before she even reached ten, sinking into the lands of her dreams, where she danced for the fox to the tempo of a waltzing beat.

---

"No... No, five more minutes" Isiat groaned, pulling Shadi gently by the tail as if to reel her back into bed. Or at least, he tried. She swatted his face with the overlarge appendage and knocked him back into the bedding, laughing quietly as he sprawled out with a dramatic huff as if she'd knocked the breath from his lungs.

He propped himself up on one elbow and watched, the black, white tip, and red dividing strips of his fur all lining up neatly as they swayed back and forth in a slow wag behind him. Undeniably, it was quite a view of her pillowy rump. Almost lazily, she made a deliberate show of bending at her waist to collect her clothes from the floor, her tail giving enticing and teasing flickers in his direction.

His tongue almost involuntarily swept across his lips, still tasting her upon them. Her scent still filled his nostrils from where she'd cried out his name while riding his muzzle like a damn horse. Oh, how very worth it she was though. How much he wanted her just to come back to bed. Let the rest of the day play out as it would. Fuck Yzetz and the clans, fuck the conference, fuck the war going on...

For just a single, perfect moment, he saw her as Scion saw his hoard, and then even more. His heart raced. He couldn't help but chuckle. The damn dragon had seen it long and truly before Isiat had, and now, he was more than happy to simply ride with his feelings and see where they led. He'd heard stranger stories than a master falling for one of his slaves after all. The world was full of far more intriguing and marketable mysteries. Let the poets write stories of those.

He wanted her all to himself.

"What's so funny?" Shadi asked. Her little catty smile shot across her shoulders as she scooped up her dress in her paws, cradling the fine, emerald silk in her arms like a precious newborn.

He waved his paw, eyes never leaving her for a second. He was transfixed by her it seemed

"Something Scion said. I'm spoiling you." He mused with a smile.

"Hmmm. I don't mind it so much. You at least like me for me, and not just my..." Her paws found her breasts, pressing the pillowy mounds together on her chest as she flicked her tail up, letting her hair swish in a dramatic and incredibly sexy roll. "Skill set."

"I think you should sleep with me." He blurted out far quicker than he'd planned.

"I thought that was what I just did. Why? Want me to keep you warm tonight as well?" That cheeky, feline grin would be the death of him for sure.

"And every other night. As long as you're aboard... I'll have a few drawers cleared, but that way, you're always close at hand, and I..." He hesitated and willed himself not to just say the words that were really on his mind. It would have been unprofessional. He didn't want to scare her off entirely. She was looking at him strangely now, almost curiously. He was faltering, dammit, and making a fool of himself. Just say it, his mind cursed at him-

"Stay with me. Here, in my cabin. At least until you finish paying your debt. I'll even waive it off your living expenses for the duration! Just another thing you can save a few Draskar on each payday, you know? Plus, we'll be traveling through the desert. The nights get cold this time of year, and you'll be much warmer in my cabin than that little box below decks, and-"

"Of course!" Came her answer, bright and cheery, and it truthfully caught Isiat off guard.

"Oh! Well uh... Splendid." He managed to sputter out after a moment.

"Well, you're right. It makes sense, and your cabin is much nicer than mine... Plus this way, I have an excuse to sleep in a little. You get your breakfast delivered, right?" She teased him, sliding right back down onto the bed at his side. His paws went around her waist immediately, pulling her warm body against his own, his tails curling around her like a blanket. He didn't bother telling her that he'd rather her close than in Larise's cabin at the opposite end of the ship.

"Every morning unless I say otherwise. Should I start having Aristol send up extra portions?" Isiat snickered, cocking an eyebrow as she snuggled comfortably against his side. His paws caressed down the length of her spine slowly, feeling the faded scars of many lashings beneath his fingertips. With how soft and smooth her fur had grown back in, they were almost indistinguishable from anything else unless one knew what to look for. A small kindness, and proof enough that time and care perhaps, could heal the worst of all scars.

She gave him hope that his lofty and oft called foolish goals were in fact, achievable one day. Not in his lifetime, or the next even, but one day, it would all be changed for the better. It was the seed planted that could be enjoyed by the generations that came after.

"If you're paying for it, yes." Her kiss was sweet and soft upon his cheek before she nuzzled her face beneath his chin. His heart was racing with his excitement and an odd, satisfying joy that fluttered merrily around his mind in a cloud of serotonin. He was certain she could hear it, along with the excitable beating of his tails against the bedsheet. If she noticed, she didn't comment on his happiness, and he was certain that she noticed.

She had always been quick to pick up on such tells of his, and of others as well.

"Well, perhaps if you keep up your absolutely stellar performances, I'll have him prepare some of his specialty meals for you... Though for now... There's something else you can help me with. Something, involving a certain pissed-off dragon, and you being just the little dealmaker to change his mind..."

Shadi smiled sweetly. Being a spoiled slave had its upsides as well, she supposed...