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THE UNINTENDED CURSE

Ch. 17

To say the least, our stay there at the lord's estate was a nice change of pace. Don't get me wrong, spending time at sea had been an experience, but staying in such fine accommodations as that of a lord's estate was just what was needed to get back our land legs. To which the three; four if you include that of the blob now controlling the lord, of us really enjoyed the stay. The only problem was that our stay at the lord's estate wasn't getting us any closer to the elves homeland and to that our individual goals. To which found me at the door of the lord's private study about ready to proceed with the plans for the next leg of our journey.

"Enter," said a voice from within after I'd give the door a polite rapping with my host's knuckles. To which I depressed the latch on the door and entered into the room. To say the least, the lord of this place was probably one of the most wealthy/prosperous people I'd ever come across, and to I wondered how he'd come by all this wealth made me feel a little uneasy. "A little different than what you expected, isn't it," said a voice that drew my attention from the ornate tapestries on the walls to a figure sitting behind a desk.

At first glance my host's heart skipped a beat at the mere sight of the man who'd nearly ended his life, but it was only a moment before I had his heart quiet down and back to a normal rhythm. "I knew that you were fairly well off, but all this," I said as I swept a hand across the room, indicating everything "is a bit much." The figure across the room laughed once, replaced his quill back into the inkwell, and lounged back in his chair.

"One of the many perks of a successful merchant," he stated simply as he gave me a very pleased smile and to that motioned for me to take a chair that was before the large/oak desk that he sat at. The seat itself was lush and very comfortable; another sign of a successful businessman/merchant, and it seemed that this lord loved to show off all his riches. "And what brings you to my study?"

It was a bit unnerving to have to deal with the lord in this manner; since in truth he was actually under the control of a piece of me or more precisely to that of a blob monster, but prying ears could ruin it all for us and to that our newest acquisition to our growing support. In short, if anyone were to find out that the lord had been taken over by a parasite/blob-monster then he'd be taken away and there would go all our chances to use him to further our goals. "Through our...interactions, it's come to my attention that we may be taking advantage of our host and don't wish to put him out for too much longer." This got the lord's eyebrow to rise, but the meanings behind my words eventually sunk in and he nodded. "I'm sorry to say that our party has pressing matters elsewhere and to that we must depart."

The lord gave a bit of a nod to that and leaned forward in his chair. "That is a bit unfortunate," he stated simply, "For I heard from one of your associates that she was getting to enjoy her time here." I couldn't help but sigh at that and knew that he was referring to that of the younger sister elf. I really couldn't blame her for enjoying her stay here; I mean after all she'd endured from her captivity to here there hadn't been that long for either sister to really relax and let down the guard. "But I believe it to be for the best. After all, it would not do for my business to have un-collared elf slaves running about my property." I couldn't help but raise up my eyebrows in confusion but at the lord's slow nod I knew that what he'd just said had some more meaning to it. As if to quench or answer my confusion, the lord straightened, pushed a few sheets of parchment forward, and indicated that I should look at them.

Not really understanding what this was all about, but knowing that if he found it interesting or something I needed to look at, then I'd probably find it interesting as well. Heck, he was a-part of me at one time so it did seem reasonable that something attracting his attention would do so for me as well. Picking up the parchments I glanced over them for a brief moment and raised an eyebrow. "And these are supposed to mean...what exactly?" I asked as the papers only showed a random bit of number, but to the trained/lord's eye they meant...

"Product," he stated simply and to that I began to look at the numbers in a bit different light/way. "Those numbers represent Product and to that..."

"A lot of product," I interrupted, to which I looked up to him and saw him nod. "But that doesn't really mean much, I mean, in order to earn something you have to sell something." To which the lord nodded slightly to and rolled his hand as if saying that I should continue along that line of thought. "But what is this 'product' he moves?"

"And that is the right question," the lord smiled/nodded, and then stood up to walk around his desk. "I've been going through the books and I can tell that this 'product' that is moved is bringing in quite a tidy sum of funds." To which was evident by the plush furnishings but I was getting the distinct impression that he was goading me on.

"If you've gone through his records, then you've probably found out what that product is." To which he stopped in mid step, lowered his head, and let out a long/drawn-out sigh.

"Indeed, I have." But even though he found out something such as that, he didn't really seem to find that information all that pleasing. "And you're not going to like what I found." It was this that got me out of the chair as well and to that standing next to him, but when I placed a hand on his shoulder he seemed to slump a bit more. "They're...elves." At hearing those words I felt a sudden lump in my throat and it became hard to stand.

He was there in an instant and to that helped me to sit my host down in the chair I'd just vacated. 'Elves...he deals in elves...,' my mind repeated the words over and over again, as if saying them could push through the doubt of disbelief at hearing what I so didn't want to hear. Eventually my head raised and I saw the lord kneeling before me and to which he gave me a nod. "How long has he been doing this...," was what I wanted to ask, but the lord just shook his head and sighed.

"That really isn't that important right now." I was about to ask him what could be more important, but the lord simply held up a hand forestalling my question. "In truth, I'm glad you came to me to inform me that you want to leave," he stood up but didn't take his eyes from meeting mine. "It so happens that a client is going to be coming by in a few days to...inspect or possibly purchase several...products." He let the last word slowly as if saying it was a bit hard on the tongue and I knew that he knew more than he was letting on. After a bit he finally turned to look at me over his shoulder and I couldn't help but let out a long breath.

"You know more about the situation with, whoever is coming; so I'll defer to you and whatever ideas you've got," I said back to him to which he nodded and looked away.

"Like I said before," he paused for a moment before he began to pace back and forth, "It's a good thing that you're deciding to leave fairly soon. But now knowing what we know about what type of product I deal in, what are we going to do about those products?" He paused in his pacing to face me and nodded for me to finish the train of thought or more precisely to come up with a solution to helping those elves that were going to be sold off to this person. "Not to mention, I don't believe that you want to leave this, (The lord gestured to his body) person off without punishing him for his deeds," to which I nodded to him.

Still feeling a bit paranoid of being overheard from prying ears, I reached on over, took out a blank piece of parchment, dipped a quill into an ink well, and began to write out my ideas for not only that of the ***hole of a lord, for that of the elves that were still held within the lord's prison, and finally how my counterpart that was within the lord to rejoin/merge back with me. Once finished I handed the drying ink/parchment to the lord and after quickly reading over it he gave me a nod in agreement to my plans for all.