Oracle

Part 6

"Sir?" Elison said sounding confused by the order.

"We can hardly leave the boy alone if he is still a seer. He is currently helpless and as the one who put him in the situation, I only think it fitting that you are the one to help him with the transition," Lord Calder said calmly. "I would have thought you pleased, after all. You wanted out of the organ trade." The look on Lord Calder's face made Elison's mouth dry up. There was nothing he could say to contest that face.

The Warden made a strange noise, hitting Elison with her own powerful glare. She was dangerous and they all knew it, dangerous but tolerated as a needed evil, or rather needed goodness. "I too think it would be suitable for you to atone in this way," she commented darkly. "That boy is going to need a lot of help and I think you are qualified to give it."

"Interesting, I would have thought you would have been opposed to the idea," John commented, his pretty boy looking up surprised as well. "Given it was Elison who delivered the boy to the butcher in the first face."

A grim smile formed on the Warden's face and she shrugged. "It was not like Elison was the one to rip his eyes from his face. He just delivered the boy to the man who would. Also, I know demons," the smile grew darker for a moment. "Demon's don't start having a conscious for no reason, Elison. So tell me, Elison. Have you been able to get your poor victim out of your head since you met him?"

Elison shook his head silently. "No," he admitted uncomfortably.

"What are you, Elison? Half? Quarter? Descended? Certainly not a pure demon," the Warden commented idly as if it wasn't some of the most personal information about a demon she could be asking. The lineage of your blood. She smirked as she saw his expression at the question, shrugging her shoulders calmly. "It doesn't matter really, but I would suggest you do some research on your bloodline. It may be that this boy is more to your demon than just meat."

"I will take your advice under advisement," Elison said stiffly a cold chill running down his back at the suggestion the woman was giving. John chuckled darkly, the boy in his lap gulping. Calder just seemed neutral as ever, his aide only raising his eyebrows at the idea. "If you'll excuse me," he stood and bowed to the people in the room before exiting through the door into the shadow realm. Not afraid to admit that what the warden was saying was entirely possible.

When he was gone John laughed again, hiding his face against his pretty boy's shoulder. "He's scared of it being true," he chuckled. "Fini, can you brew up some more tea?" John asked gently, kissing his cheek.

"How old is Fini?" the warden asked darkly as the boy got off John's lap and walked over to another door, not missing how John was looking at his slave. John was by the standards of a slave keeper, a good one. He took good care of his charges and if someone dared hurt them or did something to them against their will, that person was quickly dealt with in ways the warden didn't like to dwell on.

"Twenty-one, don't worry Warden. Despite his looks, he is legal and even better, a screamer," purred John, before blushing as he realised just who he had said that too. "Err. Sorry. But I do ensure all my boys and girls are legal, don't doubt that. The one or two I pick up before legal age I tend to send to Lord Calder's middle houses until they are old enough."

The warden looked like she wanted to say something but only sighed and slumped in her seat. Sadly she had learned to pick her fights when it came to the slavers. They knew she would gladly take them all down, she knew that she wasn't in a position to do at that moment. John was a more complicated issue because many of his slaves were technically no longer slaves and more employees with contracts and dates when they were allowed to leave the organisation. More indentured servants in the eyes of the law, still illegal but not unheard of.