Another half-hour passed, with nothing that Kasey had any interest in being offered. He couldn't think of what to discuss with Marion - he loathed small talk, and was keenly aware that he simply had no idea how intelligent she was. He'd always thought of her as a showpiece, someone to make him look good when out in public. He'd known on some level that she was smart, but he'd dismissed it as social awareness, not anything scientific. He'd only married her because his social connections were lacking, and some of his colleagues had made it clear that in order to advance, in order to get permission to make some even more fantastic creations, he'd have to start being more social.<br/><br/>And he'd failed on that, he realized. Instead of making her his ally, his confidante, he'd treated her as an abstraction, an employee, like a social-themed nurse, or cook, or maid. He vowed to try to improve that, somehow. He wasn't sure how... he wasn't sure he could shift his thinking that much. But he knew he owed it to her to<em>try</em>, at least.<br/><br/>The crowd quieted suddenly, as he turned to Marion. "Marion, I..." he started to say, but was interrupted by the booming voice of Bengal.<br/><br/>"Hello again, my customers," Bengal shouted, his voice being amplified by the microphone. "It's time for you to buy one of the gems of the show again." He started pacing across the stage. "Revi, please come up here to the front."<br/><br/>The unchained humanoid woman on the platform closest to Siena started moving. She jumped to the edge of the platform, sliding down the edge until her hands stopped the fall. After a split second, she let go, and fell the 20 feet down to the crowd. She landed neatly, her legs flexing as much as possible to absorb the impact, and started moving through the crowd. She headed directly for the stage, with most of the crowd moving out of her way. Those that didn't move, she ducked under or dodged around with as little divergence from the path as possible. As she got up to the stage, she flexed her legs, and leaped up, getting higher than any non-augmented human possibly could, and landed neatly on the stage, facing Bengal.<br/><br/>Bengal petted her head, and said, "Face the crowd." Revi turned around, and started watching the crowd instead of Bengal. Her eyes traveled over the entire length of the crowd, and then turned back, going row by row. "Ladies and gentlemen," roared Bengal, "what I offer for you today is quite simply the most perfect Magitech slave construct ever built."<br/><br/>Kasey scowled. "That's a crude way of putting it. This dolt doesn't even understand what she is."<br/><br/>Bengal continued. "She is perfectly obedient, and will obey any command that she's capable of doing. But more than that..." He looked off-stage and shouted to one of his minions, "Swelter, bring that blade up now." A half-deformed Rakshasa climbed up the stage, a small sword being carried carefully. He offered it out to Bengal, and quickly stepped back when Bengal took it.<br/><br/>Bengal turned back to Revi, and handed the blade to her. "Revi, please kill yourself," he said pleasantly.<br/><br/>She looked at him and asked emotionlessly, "Quick and efficient, master, or slow and bloody?"<br/><br/>Bengal smiled. "Quick and efficient, Revi, thank you." The woman pulled the sword up, felt its balance, and made a powerful, sharp cut across her neck, the very sharp blade almost causing her to take the entire head off in one strike. Her blood gushed out, her brain's pressure dropped to zero, and she collapsed on the stage, bleeding out and dying quite horribly.<br/><br/>Bengal leaned down, picked up the sword, and turned back toward the Rakshasa. "Take this away please, Swelter." Once the sword had been collected, Bengal looked back toward the audience. "I'm sure you're wondering why I just killed something you're going to buy. The answer will be obvious in a few minutes."<br/><br/>After a minute of silence, Revi's corpse started to twitch, and her head slid back against her neck, the cut slowly disappearing. After a few minutes, her eyes regained focus, and she looked toward Bengal. "I have died, Master. Do you need a summary?" She slowly sat up, the blood from her slash still wet all over her body.<br/><br/>Bengal shook his head. "No, Revi, that's..."<br/><br/>Kasey shouted, "<strong>ONE MILLION CREDITS.</strong>" The audience gasped and turned to look at him, while Bengal smiled broadly. "I have a bid of one million, do I hear one point one?"<br/><br/>Several other bidders started bidding, driving the price up. Kasey was concentrating so firmly on the auction that he didn't notice the thug that was paying more attention to him and his companion than the auction.