The Ireem Chronicles

A curious incident happened recently when a pirate slaver was seen taking some palace residents. Here is his account of the event:

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“The security of the palace seems to be failing as of late, making it possible for a slaver to break into the palace and snatch one of the harem ladies, bringing her to the block. To pull of something like that, you would think this slaver would be strong, skilled in fighting, or one that collects slaves and tries about everything to get his hands on it. So, was it Am? No ... Cow then, a very skilled fighter? Oh no ... then maybe a more reckless guy like Jordan? No, not even him. It was a young slaver, hardly able to hold on to his own sword that was able to bring this lady to the blocks, penetrating the palace. It turned out the guards were 'away'.

Another slaver bought her and though you might think that he had bad plans with her ... did he rape her? No ... did he tried to disguise her and use her for his own purposes or try to sell her again? Not even that.... This is what actually happened: he dressed her, fed her, gave her some water to drink, secured her and looked around for one of the guards. Now, you would think this slaver is crazy, but of course he was keen enough to expect a fee for his good work. This is Ireem, nothing comes for free.

The guard he found though, not liking this slaver, had something different in mind. She started to threaten him, didn't want to pay not even his expenses, while it was the guards fault in the first place. More so, do you think she asked who kidnapped the lady? I think it didn't even come up in her mind, and of course I wouldn't have told her. But instead she tried to push full responsibility on the messenger, threatening him with trials and torture.

Turns out she didn't have the means, not even to buy the lady from the block would she have been there.

I have released the lady, and though she might have some imprints from bindings, I didn't harm her otherwise. But now, one of the palace-guards owes me. Stupid that I let her go? Maybe but if the palace can't afford to protect the ones they should, there is no money in it for me.

Next time I might like to do something different with a lady from the palace, or not bother at all about her ... let the men of Ireem have her! Those ladies seem to be seen as a catch once placed on the block, there was enough interest in buying her. I only can rejoice in a young pirate taking his chances when he sees them and getting well paid for it.

Oh, and then this man passed by, while we were negotiating ... literally, passed by, he was obviously a palace-guard, even called 'the commander' by the other guard ... he didn't talk to me, nor did he tried to fight me. Actually, he didn't seem to care about the guard nor about one of the residents of the palace that was in his care. Giving the moneylender a good bottle of rum I found out this 'commander' is a rich man. I didn't want to spend more good rum to get to know how much ... I already spent enough.

I'm certainly not the one that is going to hide behind being a guard or even a commander, I'm a slaver, I do jobs for money, my name is Taureck Ryker"