<div class="floatleft">(http://i.imgur.com/DcoPfKF.png)</div><hr/><strong>Name:</strong>Ilhan<br/><strong>Race/Culture:</strong>Djaffir<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Slave piers<br/><strong>Day/Time:</strong>Yaus al-Niwt (Day of Houses), Amt (first month) of Alak Paret (Harvest Season), Mid-Morning<br/><strong>Tagged:</strong>N’ebthe, Zidir, Open<br/><hr/><br/>The longer Zidir took to say no, if he'd say it at all, the more certain Ilhan grew of his proposal taking root. N'ebthe was more honest, her face open and bright with interest and wonder. Had anyone ever suggested it to her, or had she always been treated as commodity? There were slaves who produced value, and then there were those like N'ebthe - beautiful and exotic - who were<em>of</em>value. Ilhan had always thought fondly of the former, who saw in themselves a way to bargain for their own freedom. One of his personal tutors had bought his own freedom from his father in return for teaching Ilhan verse and natural science. That man, even in his late eighties, lived fully every day, animated with dreams of earning manumission honorably.<br/><br/>N'ebthe was not that kind of slave. Not yet. He could only imagine, but eyes like hers must have meant a life determined by law or fate, and being sold to slavers hadn't changed this in the slightest. She was born with gifted eyes, and had to be a mystic. She was graceful and tantalizingly beautiful, and so had to be property. Whether as a free wife or slave concubine, the ways of Sha'ib determined she had no other way. Maybe to Zidir she had no better way - far worse could await N'ebthe. But Ilhan refused that. Maybe a week to himself had hardened him on what he could do versus what he should, and what he should do was show her a better way.<br/><br/>Ilhan huffed audibly, protesting even the suggestion of financial difficulty. If he wished he could buy her on the spot, and spend the rest of his life comfortably supporting her as his slave. But what he should do is reject this and his offer outright, in Upuaut's name and in the name of fair trade. The deal was thievery! Ilhan ran through the calculations and came up angrier each time. He pays for N'ebthe over a year, paying more for just the permission to ask her to work (he could not force her out of conscience). And then he pays N'ebthe, whose wages could not be spent to buy her own freedom from Zidir, but from Ilhan. Were he any other man he could recoup his wage from N'ebthe, but he wasn't. If she was his, he'd free her without needing any payment.<br/><br/>He'd pay twice over, and N'ebthe would never actually earn her freedom. It was simply another deal between two masters humoring her with play money. And Ilhan would be trapped buying a slave over, little by little, and praying forgiveness for every moment. The proposal was vexing, and his body idled by letting his hand roam from her hip and over N'ebthe's stomach gently. The answer was simple, and yet not, but what sort of merchant could he claim to be without haggling? Ilhan stepped aside and turned N'ebthe to look at Zidir with him, like his partner more than anything less. The contract should be between the three of them, not just a master and buyer.<br/><br/>"Instead, a contract to pay her full price in the event of disappearance or damage only. For the time spent in my service, I pay her a fair wage that she may use toward any end of her choosing," he began, emphasizing her choice becoming a part of this written contract. "But for the time spent in my company... what I would pay to you in compensation, you waive as payment to me for<em>my</em>service. Allow me to become her tutor in poetry and courtly manners, and teach her verse from every corner of the civilized world. I acquire her gift, she my knowledge and coin, and you receive her back more gifted - and more valuable - after every night. In lieu of a promise to pay her full price by the year's end, I relinquish any right to claim her as my purchase should another customer wish to acquire her. Any risk falls to me completely if the deal is broken." And all advantage falls to Zidir - if he considered it, N'ebthe whom he was forced to sell here on the piers, after proper instruction, could be better presented to the private homes and courts of merchant or royal princes. If, that is, she didn't earn enough to buy her freedom first.