Diamond in the Rough

[Jalina]

This post continues from here .....

Jalina shivered, it was so cold here.  She couldn't remember how many days she had spent in this cage. Where she came from the sun's path across the sky, blazing across the scorching desert sands, made a clear distinction between day and night, but on this cold, foggy island sometimes the misty clouds obscured the sun completely.  She wrapped her arms tightly around her bare arms, for whatever reason, the Slaver had seen fit to show off as much of her body as possible and no amount of sheer silk would warm her here.  The Slaver came back from the tavern with a bowl and a cup.  In the bowl was some kind of stew, mostly vegetables and a few stringy pieces of meat.  the cup was merely filled with water.  Jalina stared at him with bewildered eyes as she watched him smirk at her and then thrust some dry crusty bread through the bars of the cage.  She used the bread to scoop the stew into her mouth and tried not to make any faces.  It's not that she wasn't hungry, it was just that everything she had been given to eat since arriving on this island seemed to have no flavor.  It seemed to her as if these people could go on eating the same tasteless mush day after day and die never having known the wide array of spices she had grown up taking for granted.

She tilted her head as she listened to people talking in the marketplace, for if she could get no enjoyment from eating, at least there was always something happening to be entertained by, even if she understood very little of the words, she knew that people often said much without ever speaking aloud.  Jalina had already gathered that the horrible journey on the ship had taken her halfway across the world.  She had been very sick on the ship and yet no one had shown her any tenderness, and so she had learned that she was expected to act tough and never show weakness.  Everyone she saw here had such pale skin, and the way they stared at her in the cage told her they had not often, if ever, seen someone who looked like Jalina did.

When she first arrived the Slaver had taken Jalina immediately to a building with a woman working inside, the walls of the shop were covered in many beautiful colors of cloth.  The Slaver had given the woman a heavy sack of coin and shoved Jalina at her.  For many hours she was stripped, measured, and forced to stand still while the woman worked.  When she was done Jalina found herself dressed up like a ridiculous version of the princess of her land might have worn.  Later on she might learn that, never having seen someone who looked like Jalina, that the seamstress could only take a guess at the kind of clothing the Slaver wanted her in, and perhaps having heard a fairy tale or two of desert princesses, decided to use her imagination to create what Jalina felt was almost an embarrassment to be seen wearing.

She tugged her long thick black hair around her almost as if trying to use it for extra warmth,  She shoved the now empty bowl of stew and cup to the corner of the cage and hugged her knees up to her chest.  There was some kind of commotion going on.  She strained herself against the cold bars so she could see better, but it was no use.  She couldn't understand most of the things the villagers were shouting, words such as "make way for the lord and lady!"  and people clapping and oohing and ahhing at least allowed her to know that someone important was coming.  The Slaver jabbed at Jalina with the handle of his whip, sliding it through the cage bars and hissing at her in words she understood very little of.  "Look, lively little princess, these are one of the few who might have enough gold to afford your fancy ass, and I want to get paid!"  His beady eyes shimmered with greed when he thought about the price he could ask for her.  Jalina barely made out that some important people were coming into the marketplace and something about lots of gold.  She could see a look in his eyes that terrified her.

And that's when it happened, as it often did whenever she was mad, scared or showing any kind of strong emotion, she would feel this power simmering beneath the surface and sometimes she could control it, but more often than not it took control of her, and this was one of those times.  With a lightening flash of movement her hand gripped the other end of the whip her eyes seemed to change from a dark brown into a deep piercing green, a light eminated from her hand and suddenly the whip turned into a snake, and that snake bit the Slaver before it turned back into a whip that hit the ground with a soft thud.  Jalina drew her hand back the second the moment was over, biting her fingers nervously.

And this was the sight that would have met the Lord and Lady's eyes as they walked into the marketplace that morning, a screaming Slaver raving on about how this girl was cursed and he would give her away for free if she would let him live, while he shook his snake bitten hand about.  And Jalina simply knelt there, trembling, hoping that no one actually noticed what she had just done, that they'd think the Slaver simply had too much to drink today.  She gripped the bars of the cage, staring out to see if she could yet get a good enough look at who everyone was making such a huge fuss about.

[Lady Raven Blackrain]

As usual, crowds had seen the Castle carriage entering the village through the castle arch and had followed it into the village square. Raven never understood why they did this but still, she dutifully smiled and waved at her people until the carriage came to a halt outside the Village Inn.
Cole came around to her side and ushered away the footman as if to say he could take care of his own wife 'thank you very much' and he opened the door, holding out his hand for Raven to disembark.
She smiled at him and took his hand as the people parted with "ooohhh's" and "ahhhh's" she always tried to ignore this irritating behaviour and she used her usual trick of getting lost in her husband's eyes to do this.

Raven allowed him to float her through the crowd as if they were in a ballroom dancing around the floor rather than in a dirty marketplace sidestepping around horse dung.
As they entered the market, shoppers moved aside to let them through (one of the things Raven DID like about these over the top shopping trips was the fact that she never had to deal with queues)
Raven had just started to peruse a stall full of exotic brightly covered rugs and fancy jewel covered trinkets and thoughts of that jewel box were filling her head when she heard the blood-curdling male scream from across the other side of the stalls.
Raven looked at her husband and he nodded at his guards who instantly circled Raven like she was in a cage made of brutish men. Cole drew his sword and moved forward through the crowd bravely heading towards the scream and one look from Raven told the guards he wasn't going alone and they moved with her carefully ensuring the circle around her never broke.

Another scream followed now but this time from a female and they broke through the crowd at last to see a rough looking man dragging a dark-skinned, beautiful girl from a cage by her hair.
She fell to the ground and the man pulled her to her knees. Raven stood on her tip toes to see over the guards and what she saw took her breath away for a moment.
The girl's sheer garments had come away from her body and her breasts were uncovered in the cold village air.
Her nipples were hard and her skin was prickled with cold and she had dirt on her knees and her face but she was the most classically beautiful thing Raven had ever seen. Something about her drew Raven in...she had a .... a vibration she had never felt ...then suddenly she knew what it was. It was like she could smell it in the air all at once ....this girl had magick.
Raven forgot herself and attempted to step through the guards towards her but then stood firm and closed her back in quickly. She tiptoed again and watched in horror as the man took a knife from its sheath on his leg and began to run it up the girl's inner thigh while obscenely whispering, not so quietly, in her ear.
"They might believe me but I know what I saw princess...you are cursed and now so am I for this venom will best me soon unless the curse is lifted..." he reached her stomach with the knife and Raven could see the girls fear in her eyes as she started to mouth words quickly to herself in some sort of prayer. He held the knife there and suddenly brought his other hand to her breast grabbing it hard "its a shame .." he sneered "you really are a pretty one ...I would have liked to have used you before I killed you but now I don't have long to break this curse..." he trailed the knife to between her legs "although...." he mused as he lifted the fabric there to reveal her perfect pussy "maybe I have enough time to do both...or I could kill you then fuck you but to be honest princess I do like to hear the screams..." the man came to an instant silence as Coles sword came up under his chin the point digging in slightly and causing a pin prick of blood to form there.
Gasps could be heard from the now from the silent crowd as Cole began to speak "I suggest...that you very calmly tell me what in the Goddesses name is going on here Slaver".
The man didn't move a muscle except to talk "my Lord!" he began to stammer "she ...she is cursed! I brought her here to sell and the whip ....she ....it was a snake that bit me!...Milord should I not break the curse then I should perish!"
Cole pressed the sword harder against the man's flesh "and to break the curse you must kill her? or take her dignity and use her right here in the street?" Cole was getting angrier by the second at this mistreatment of a woman and wasn't buying the mans story.
The man began to sweat "tis the venom Milord! tis making me crazy you see!....no one will take her from me so she must die before the venom reaches my heart!"
Raven again tried pushing past the guards but again was shoved back inside her man cage.
Cole looked at the poor shaking wench on the ground "is this true girl?" he demanded and she looked at him blankly before uttering a scared stream of foreign words. H held up his hand to her to stop "This girl cannot even speak our tongue how is she to defend herself?" He looked around at the crowd "did anyone here witness this mans story?" he said aloft and the crowd mumbled quietly, each asking the next if they did.
"Miloooord!" the man moaned dropping to his knees but keeping hold of the girl "I beg forgiveness but I am not to die for this girl!" and he raised his hand to stab the girl's heart. She squeezed her eyes closed tight and the crowd screamed but Raven, frustrated with being held captive simply stamped her foot and 'blinked' four feet in front catching the mans hand and squeezing so hard the dagger fell to the ground with a clank.
The crowd peeked around their hands at the sound and Raven pointed at a man staring open-mouthed "you there...go and get the physician this fool man will not die he just needs ointment and rest...and possibly acting classes for all that drama he just played out.." He nodded and ran off in the direction of the physicians quarters.
Raven looked down at the girl and smiled.
She stepped around her inspecting her body then stooped down running her fingers over the girl's breast watching as her flesh reacted to the skin if her nipples being circled. "you are quite beautiful you know.....some would say you're beauty is ....magickal...am I right?...don't worry I can understand you ...speak to me and I may be able to help you"

[Cole]

He always felt like a giant kid whenever he took Raven into the village, the excitement was just like when he was a young boy begging his father to take him along on one of his many travels that he so rarely was allowed to. But with Raven by his side, it seemed to remind him of what it was to simply enjoy life, away from the stresses of running a castle and village. Sure, people would watch in awe, but that too only served to remind him how blessed he was and to never take it for granted.

He was keeping his eye on a drunken man he saw staggering from the tavern, making sure that he saw someone leading the poor soul home before he put his attention back onto Raven, when he saw her looking at the exotic looking trinkets in one of the booths he smiled, he would have bought her anything if only to see that smile and the way her eyes lit up when she did so.

However his delight in watching his wife was cut short by a commotion on the other side of the marketplace. He had always felt a bit funny about the slaver, it wasn't his profession that caused Cole to judge him, but rather the way he went about it. More than a few times he had heard some of his guards saying that the slaver had been in the tavern bragging about cheating people, and how not all of the girls he acquired had come to him by honest means.

So it was no wonder that he felt so furious at watching how this man was treating this girl. And while the whole story of magick, a whip turning to a snake and this man saying he had been cursed made him extremely uneasy, he was far more concerned about the girl and what would happen to her, while he loved his people, they were extremely prone to superstition and if anyone were to take her on she would need an extreme amount of protection in order for her life to be anything more than completely miserable.

He was just going to try to communicate with her in some way when he saw his wife had broken free from the circle of guards and was now eyeing this girl. He stepped back then, keeping a close watch on the situation, but in his heart, he was already feeling more relaxed, if anyone could help her, he was fully confident that it was Raven.

[Jalina]

She was literally shaking, it only seemed like pure luck that the slaver had not managed to cut her with how much her entire body was trembling. She did not have to understand his words to know what he must be telling everyone. And yet it startled her when she saw a man come to her aid. At first she thought that he might be offering to lock her up, Cole's words were as strange as anyone else's she had heard recently, but they had a firm kindness behind them.

She breathed a sigh of relief when the slaver was ushered off to get whatever treatment would help him, this did not calm Jalina down though, maybe he would die, she had never made a snake that big before, once or twice a baby one, but this was one been full grown. She was staring in complete dismay down to the ground, she didn't dare make eye contact with any of the people that were murmuring so many things around her. But that was before she heard her voice.

Jalina glanced up and held her breath in fear. She could understand this woman, yet the words were still the same foreign tongue that everyone else was speaking. It was as if she was speaking inside of Jalina's mind and translating it to her all at the same time.

She pushed back from the touch, her dark eyes flashing a bit of defiant attitude to this woman who was just fondling her as if she planned to take her home and own her, and while Jalina knew that had been her fate at all along, it had never willingly been her choice.

But this woman could understand her! And that made it a hard choice between giving in to her advances and accepting help, or refusing to be taken in by anyone and possibly dying in this cruel new land she now found herself in.

"I did not mean to hurt him....." She spoke quietly in her own language, she really hoped that she could understand her because there was no way she thought her mouth could make the strange sounds that made up the language they spoke here. "I have never meant to hurt anyone but....if I get mad or sad or....it just happens, you know things....they just happen" She looked up into Raven's eyes now, pleading for her to understand that yes she had magic, but she had no idea why she did or how to use it.

[Lady Raven Blackrain]

Raven listened and nodded as the girl spoke. When she had finished she touched her fingers under the girl's chin and raised her eyes to her own. "I need you to listen to me..." she began "...I can help you but you have to be willing to be mine....do you understand what that means?" the girl looked at her confused and scared but seemingly understand what she meant by that. "Yes that's right" Raven replied to her silent question "I will own you, you will be expected to serve me but you will be taken care of and you will have a good life in the castle ...which is decidedly better than..." she looked around the crowd of peasants "...what you will have if I leave you here....I can help you...I have magick too that's how you're understanding me girl....now if you want to live go along with anything I say and come willingly with us" She didn't even wait for the girls answer she simply rose to her feet and held up a hand to the crowd.
"My good people there has been no curse here today ...I would know if magick had been used and none has touched this girl till I did. The slaver is sick and will be better soon thanks to our physician who we will ensure is paid for his trouble.... please go back to your day all is well and in hand"
The crowd began to depart and though a few hung back to stare more at the village royalty most went back to what they were doing.

Raven looked at her husband and smiled that cheeky 'I found something I really want' smile and Cole smiled back till he realised what was going on then started to shake his head ...."But my darling!" Raven began "she is sooo pretty and I really like her skin! look how exotic she is! I want to play with her so badly! please my love ...pleeeease?" she stood the girl up and lifted her sheer skirt "look at that pussy my love" she slipped her fingertips between the girls pussy lips and pinched hard on her clit before caressing it with small wet circles "look how pretty she is when you play with her!" Cole began to laugh at his pathetically cute wife - she was just like a child when there was something she wanted and he found it very hard to say no. She continued seeig that he was breaking "and I only yet have two girls my love! I do so want this one as my third...please say I can have her....she would be a very inexpensive gift ...for only the cost of the physician I could have my own genie princess in a bottle!....wouldn't you like that Milord?" she ran her fingers over the front of his pants and winked at him "think of how fun it could be to have my very own Arabian princess!"

[Cole]

Cole stood by watching, his lips puckered into a thoughtful expression as he witnessed the way his wife seemed to be able to smooth over awkward situations so seamlessly. For all of the excitement that had happened just moments prior, he was now watching people returning to their business with only a few dismissive words from Raven's very kissable lips. He found himself wanting to bring her home right now and say screw the rest of the day's responsibilities, that perhaps an even better present he could give her, was a day laid in bed enjoying all of the pleasure they had at their fingertips.

But Raven seemed to have other ideas. And he shook his head, there was just no way this was going to go over very well, people already still held a lot of superstition and fear about a witch being lady of the castle, and he felt that great strides in being more accepting had been made, but to bring this girl into the castle now, was sure to cause whispered rumors and put them back a few steps once more. He drew in a deep breath and sighed loudly.

"But didn't you really like that box? I could get you two of them even!" Though the girl was going to come very cheap, Cole was overthinking the other kind of costs taking in such a girl might ensue. But that was when his wife pulled on those charms that had made him fall in love with her all those years ago. And there he was,, remembering how he had such a hard time giving her exactly what she wanted, no matter how high the price.

He did take in how beautiful she was, and he had to admit it would be fun to watch Raven having her way with that exotic little thing. She had some fire inside her as well, and he chuckled to himself, thinking that it would be amusing to watch her resist and then have to give in to what he knew Raven would make her into.

"I don't know ....I really did want to get you something special though, and you have been missing that third girl. " Cole took one more look at those seductively pleading eyes and nodded his head, giving in yet again, because it made him so happy, to make her happy. Then he reached into his coin pouch, and as he felt Raven's hand graze over the front of his pants, eliciting a firm reaction almost instantly, he distracted himself by taking hold of that teasing hand and placing a good handful of coin onto her palm. "There, now take her somewhere to get some not ripped clothing, I can tell you are dying to dress that one up like a princess....." He reached around her waist discretely and then squeezed her ass firmly before giving it a good pat while grinning at her.

[Jalina]

Jalina stared at her with a confused look that waivered between complete disdain and mild curiosity. Was she really going to just trap into this? She wanted to scream, smack this woman across the face and run, but she also was well aware that without the ability to control her magick, there was no way she could hope to defend herself against the things that would surely go wrong.

So she merely nodded, she gave no ecstatic confirmation that she wanted to be owned, but rather a nod of resignation that she had reached the bottom of the barrel and had no other options left. But in her heart, she thought that there was no way this woman could hope to tame her. She had been thrown away over and over, and whether she had magick powers or not, Jalina did not have any faith just yet, that someone could truly help her. And she had much less faith that she would ever actually enjoy being owned.

She watched Raven as she was flirting and begging Cole, and even though she could not understand his responses, it was clear that he had his reservations. Rightly so, Jalina thought to herself, holding her breath, as if still gripping onto a shred of hope that he would say no. But he gave in, and she sighed softly. She wanted to feel grateful or to show some kind of sign that she was happy she wasn't being tossed out to be stoned by ignorant villagers, but she couldn't seem to muster up any more emotion, she felt herself go cold inside, awaiting what this woman would choose to do with her new toy.

[Lady Raven Blackrain]

Raven did a little happy dance and kissed her husband hard "thank you my love!" she beamed "I will make sure she is appropriately dressed for the return home I promise!"
Raven was ecstatic, little did Cole know he had just bought her a very rare gift indeed, for this girl wasn't just something to dress up like a genie ....she WAS a genie! or in any case, she was a Djinn which accounted for the same thing the only difference being that a genie was the thing of fairy stories that could grant 3 wishes before being useless and was usually of sweet if not a little mischievous nature...a Djinn, however, was the real deal. very powerful and had endless wishes to give if you knew how to ask and here she was with not only a Djinn of her very own but one that didn't even know what she was and needed a trusted friend to help her.
Raven could be that friend and gain benefits in all manner of ways ....and if she was honest? it had been a long time since she had anyone who also had magick to confide in and be friends with....but it would never do to let anyone know this or that the girl had magick so she would have to take this very slowly and carefully and gain the girls trust before she could even explain to her what magick she held.

She took the money from Cole and kissed him again before taking the girls hand and wrapping her cloak around her like a wing, "come girl let us find you some clothes before you catch your death...and remember don't worry I hear you so don't be scared" she stopped and looked down the girls body "although it will be a shame to cover that up .....we are here ...come inside and choose what fabrics you like and tell me how you would like it to look....the lady here will do the rest do you understand?"

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