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Nyxia is a tiny town at the base of one of Ikoth’s volcanoes. It is a lush, beautiful village that thrums with life.
What I love about Nyxia is that it isn’t a big city like Sarziroch or New Solas. It is a small, quaint village that thrives economically and has no need to line its streets with gold to make a point the way New Solas does.
This trip will be over soon. Just get through it as peacefully as you can and then go back home.
My driver drops me off at one of New Solas’s premium hotels. I drop my bags off and head straight to the ports. I feel refreshed after sleeping in the carriage, and I just want to get this over and done with as soon as possible.
“Calias, you big bastard!” The voice, gruff and loud, calls out to me the minute I step onto the ports.
I turn wearily as my friend and business partner, Dhymhi, walks up to me.
“I should have known you would be here,” I say as I shake his hand.
I am not unaware of the way nearly everyone is looking at me as Dhymhi and I speak. I am taller and larger than everyone on this port. I am even taller and larger than Dhymhi, who is a gorgon and is over six feet tall.
You shouldn’t have worn the cape, I think exasperatedly.
I have always been an imposing figure, but as I have grown older and allowed my hair and beard to grow out, I have been likened to a monster.
Dhymhi and I talk as we walk from the ports to the markets. I nod at several of the traders who have stands at the market. All of them work for me.
They straighten up and stop chatting, smoking, or drinking, and focus on the business in front of them. They know that there will be consequences, horrible consequences, if they do not meet their daily targets.
I might try to avoid New Solas as much as possible, but the city brings in good business, which I cannot ignore.
“Did you get the new shipment in?” Dhymhi asks me as we walk to the part of the market where the slaves are sold.
“Yes,” I murmur as I keep my eye on one of my slave traders. “They came from Vesnios, correct?”
“Yes. Some xaphans wanted to buy it, but considering it was a shipment of dried pilna flowers, I didn’t want to sell it to them.”
“Of course not.” I turn my attention back to Dhymhi. “We don’t need the xaphans in control of the drug trade.” My voice is sharp, and Dhymhi stiffens.
I soften my voice as we continue to walk. Everyone around us gives us a wide berth.
“Well, the Unseelie bought it. They won’t sell it,” Dhymhi says after the slight awkwardness between us has passed. “Knowing them, they’ll probably snort it themselves.”
I let out a dry laugh. “That would be like them.”
We come to a stop in front of another slave trader’s table, one who does not work for me.
And that is when I see her.
She is in a large cage, huddled up to another woman, a pregnant woman. She is human, with the largest, darkest, most vivid blue eyes I have ever seen.
The world comes to a halt. My world comes to a halt.
Because suddenly, all that exists is her.
She’s filthy, is the first coherent thought in my head when I finally start to think again.
Because she is. The human girl who has so quickly, so intensely, caught my attention, is covered underneath layers of grime. Her body, painfully thin and bony, is covered in bruises.
Her hair, which I am sure is beautiful, is matted and almost gray.
“I want her.” It’s the first thing I say, interrupting Dhymhi who is still speaking about the dried pilna shipment.
“What?” he asks me, his voice confused.
