26. Auction

"Why have you brought us here?" Marlet could hear the faint sounds of chatter as she slowly began to wake. "You four are VIPs in my establishment and you also told me to notify you if something truly interesting showed up" a sleazy voice answered making her grimace. "Fine then, don't keep us waiting" a woman spoke this time in a bored tone. What followed after was a red haired man and a blonde woman walked in followed by an elven woman wearing a pince-nez and another woman with a witch hat. Marlet recognised three of the people as gods and the elf had the air of aristocracy about her.

As Marlet was looking at the four, they were looking right back at her. The red headed man had a feral smile on his face whilst the blonde looked her up and down like a piece of meat. The woman with the hat seemed to follow her outline for some reason and the elf zeroed in on her wings and Marlet could practically feel the greed radiating off her. "How much?" the red headed man simply stated, snapping the other 3 out of their admiration of the 'product'. "My lord Ares, I have already done so much for you to already bring the 4 of you here before the product was even made 'public'" the man was dragging his words trying to sound pitiful if he hadn't been looking at all the people's pant's pockets seemingly looking for the biggest bulge.

"Don't you dare try that" the lady with the hat threatened, "you know Athena and I have a competition every 50 years and that time just so happens to be coming closer. Could you imagine the fine breeding material she could be!" Marlet actually shivered at that, to be used like that, consequences be damned, she would slit this woman's throat before they even left the building. "Hecate you always are trying to catch up with what Athena had done but on your own, why not make your own magical nation? Away from my Rakia that is." Ares spoke but only received a 'hmph' and a turn of the head in return. At this point the elf spoke up, "I am thankful you allowed me to join in this private little auction, it is a auction is it not?" At this point the three of them continued to exchange words with the supposed owner or auctioneer whilst the blonde goddess came close to inspect every inch of Marlet's body.

Her wings were felt, the amount of muscles she had as well as a knock on her horns. The goddess seemed to ignore the death-glare Marlet was shooting her this entire time and continued as though she were checking the ripeness of a watermelon. Once she was almost done she caught sight of Marlet's wrist that had been burnt and frowned. "The trophy's been nicked, whatever you wanted to charge will have to be lowered since you failed to mention transport damage." This caused the owner(?) to develop a small frown and walk towards her. The goddess pointed out the damage done and the reason why she got it 'during transport' causing the man to have an ugly expression on his face. Knowing that he had just lost money the man made fist and the sound of knuckles popping could be heard. After the third pop he took a deep breath and smiled at the goddess again "naturally the price shall be adjusted as compensation for this oversight." Satisfied with the auctioneer's response they both left to another room and the three other people followed as well.

Alone again in the room Marlet looked around trying to find any indication of who's building she might be in. She found no indication of identity except the limited clients that were present before her earlier. She assumed that the 4 of them were busy bidding and discussing terms of payment, having no indication on how long they might be doing this for she conjured a dagger in her dominant hand and started picking at the shackle of the other. She had no idea what she was doing but in the hopes of escape she could only hope she triggered a mechanism that released a hand. The thought of just hacking into the shackle itself did cross her mind but she refrained from doing so for 2 reasons:

1. The dagger might be corporeal enough to get through flesh, but (possibly magical) steel was a different story all together.

2. The sound alone would alert everyone that wasn't deaf or dumb and whilst she still had 1 arm stuck, they could swarm her and put her into even stricter constraints. Something she didn't want.

Hearing the clicks and clacks above her head Marlet couldn't help but think back to her carelessness. She had gotten too comfortable with how things had been with the familia looking out for her and the way Loki had been treating her, it may be a fantasy world a life-time ago but this was very much her real world now. Greed, Jealousy and Pride are still prevalent in the world and if you give someone enough motivation they would accomplish what they had set out for, in this case, capture her.

Hearing footsteps nearing again Marlet simply opened her hand and the dagger made it an inch out of reach before de-summoning itself as though nothing had happened. "Remember Ares, you owe me for upping the stakes" the woman with the hat, Hecate, said threateningly with a finger under his chin. "What do you want me to do, she's the one who took an interest in the girl" Ares could only roll his eyes and indicate with his head towards the blonde. "Hmph!" The elf looked mightily offended and simply left, not sparing a word.

"I really love the idea of adorable, exotic pets!" the blonde was practically bouncing up and down now, "with her and my new vixen, we'll be the attraction of the century!" Ares could only wryly smile at her antics, she had strong armed him with her 'powers of persuasion' to add extra funds into her own bid so that she may win and 'reward' him with and unforgettable night. "It's a shame her status was scrambled, damn that Ouranos meddling in our affairs even after swearing neutrality." This but of information actually caught her attention, she had no idea the oldest god had done that for her and Loki hadn't mentioned it either. Marlet saw the auctioneer approach again and before she could make any movements in protest she was knocked unconscious by the sleeping powder again. The last thing she heard before going under was, "damn, had to up the dosage again. It's like she's adapting every time"

Searing pain. A burning, painful feeling that Marlet would likely never forget waking up to ever again. She wanted to scream, thrash around and beat whoever was doing this to her into bloody pulp then feed it to a monster before killing it so the ash could forever disappear. "The lassie's waking up. Go comfort her, she must be in pain at the moment." A gruff voice said a little distance away from her and before she could ask who that was or where they were going a pair of soft hands moved her head onto a soft lap while stroking her hair. "Shhh, shhh. It's okay, you won't get hurt anymore" a soothing and mature voice spoke from behind Marlet's head, still stroking and not even minding her horns. "I had something similar happen to me, but not to your extent. Rest and try not to move." The same voice instructed, still trying to calm her down.

Her wings felt weighed down, previously she didn't feel the weight of her wings attached to her back because her physiology compensated for it, making it a normal feeling as though she had always had it. But now, it felt as though she were carrying 4 backpacks with her wings alone and that was mightily uncomfortable.

Marlet slowly felt around, first subtly with her whole body. Trying to find any bindings or restraints but found nothing. She slowly tried to move her hands and feet, feeling no resistance again.

Marlet's eyes shot open and she looked around. Taking note of the dwarf sitting in a corner of the metal cage and the renard woman who's lap her head was resting in. Marlet wanted to jump up but felt her wings not follow her input and dragged her back to the metal floor, knocking the wind out of her for a second. She looked to her left and saw a huge metal disk the size of a shield. There was the emblem of an woman's side face and a crown atop her head. Looking to the other side Marlet could see the same thing again.

"It's to show who you belong to" the fox-girl said after noticing how Marlet's expression slowly turned horrified. She brought her tail over and above so that Marlet could see it. It was a beautiful red tail that matched the woman's silky red hair and hazel brown eyes. Instead of a white tip there was black tufts at the end but oddly there was a shiny piece of silver at the end. "White gold is meant to be a status of power where we're going. If your slave can have it, what does that say about you?" The woman smiled self-depreciably as a small tear rolled down her cheek and fell on Marlet's forehead.

"I am sorry for what they had me do to you lassies" the dwarf spoke again, not making eye contact with the two. "It's fine Tony, if it wasn't you they would get someone else to do half as good a job as you had done and we might have had it much worse" the woman seemed to be the comforting mother type.

"Now let's get introductions out of the way. I'm Mizuhashi but everyone calls me Mizu" the now named Mizu said while stroking Marlet's hair still, "and that dwarf over there is An-Tony, he says to call him Tony rather than Anne" this actually got a small chuckle from Marlet and a grumble from Tony. Taking the following silence as her turn to talk Marlet introduced herself after Mizu had removed the mouthpiece from her. "Do either of you know who bought us and where we are going?" Marlet was curious who the blond bitch was that bought her and her new companions. The emblem on the shields embedded into her wings were an unfamiliar design to her so she ruled out anyone from Orario, not that they would be stupid enough to take her back when the two most powerful familia were hopefully looking for her.

"Aphrodite" that name made Marlet pause for a second. "She and her familia have taken residence with Ares for a few years to try and level up some" Mizu explained after seeing the face Marlet pulled. "The familia outside rely on the smugglers from Orario to bring them as many monsters or 'interesting' people as you are a clear case of the latter" the dwarf continued on for Mizu, "they then throw all the monsters and soldiers into a coliseum of sorts for maximum benefit."

"Well I'm nobody's slave. If I could escape right now, will you two join me?" Marlet finished with a roguish smile. Tony only released a snort, "what question is that? Naturally we want to escape this hell-hole. I'll do you one better, if we do escape, I'll lead you to the Dwarven Undercity where we can get safe passage wherever you two need to go!" Tony proudly declared at the mention of the Undercity. "That's all I needed to hear my stout friend" the fey replied.

Closing her eyes and concentrating, Marlet will for the 2 massive shields to be stored in her inventory as if she were un-equipping armour and surprisingly, it worked. "Now for the two of you so we can run as soon as we're out" Marlet said with a smile as she stretched her unburdened wings, closed Mizu's mouth which was hanging open and smiled at Tony.