The shackles of society

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The prince did not like the sound of that. If he had the money to feed them there was no excuse. "That's not right. There are laws in order to make sure slaves are treated properly. Abuse of any sort is forbidden, starvation included." Khaal was clearly confused over the situation. A wealthy man should know the law the best.

What he did not know was that even though the law was black and white on the paper, no one enforced those laws, and the king himself refused to properly take care of that problem. The only reason the law still existed was so that they could brag to other countries about their humane treatment of slaves compared to everyone else. It was well hidden from anyone not in the country, and the young prince.
 
She actually snorted at his idealism and then pulled her legs up as if to shield her from him. She looked over at the other woman as if to ask if he was for real before she looked back at him. "If there is such a law, no elf I've ever met follows it," she said, before looking away. "You should get out more your majesty. Take the rose-tinted glasses off and see what really is the world you live in."
 
"No one would dare show the royal family how poorly they are treating their slaves, no matter how accepted it is in society. Slaves are generally hidden if you are important enough for a royal to visit you and only the highest class servants are brought out. There is no way for his highness to see the state of his land because people will go to great length to only show him the beauty of the land. The king has never been interested in seeing the country for what it is, that's why people show him a kingdom he wants to see rather than a kingdom he needs to see, and that kingdom is not inhabited by low class citizens." Abigail explained matter of factly. The prince would get to know about it sooner or later by having such an outspoken slave around himself, so they could as well put out all the cards on the table.

"My father would never doom a whole social class." Khaal interjected as he stood up, quite angered by the accusations. His father had a heavy burden on his shoulders, being criticized like that when he tried his best running a kingdom was most unwarranted.

"Have you ever asked him your highness?" She asked the prince. All he could do was stand there speechless. Of course he hadn't asked. There had never been any reason to ask. There was no way his father could allow such things to happen. Right? There were definitely doubts in his mind. "I'll go make sure the food is prepared properly." Abigail then said and left the two alone. At first the prince thought there was at least one other maid in there, but she had already cleaned the floor and was probably throwing away the broken glass at that very moment.

After moments of silence, the prince sighed. "I'll speak to my father. If this truly has been going on, I'm sure it has happened behind his back. Once he knows of the ill treatment of slaves, he'll enforce stricter rules and make sure that punishment will fall upon those who breaks them." He believed in his father's innocence in the matter. His father was a righteous man, he would do something.
 
Elena looked up at him slowly and then looked away again. He could do whatever he wanted. She just wanted to leave and make her way out of this country, to another area where humans weren't slaves... if there was such a place. "Believe what you want your majesty. But that is the life I've lived up to this point. Bread and water every day of my life, working from before dawn to well after dusk. No one cares about slaves," she said as she hugged her legs tight and rested her head. "No one cares about humans."
 
The prince looked saddened at the girl. Everything had suddenly turned so wrong. His country wasn't like all the others, it had laws that protected everyone, even the lowest classes. At least it should have. "If no one cared, why then are you here and not in a dungeon awaiting your execution? I know the laws concerning an escaped slave. I know the trouble I could get into for not bringing you in. If I don't care about humans, why would I have brought you here?" Khaal wasn't sounding accusing when he spoke. He was as soft spoken as always, just wanting her to think about it. After all, if he cared, then her statement about no one caring was false.
 
His words made a little sense to her. "Fine... Most do not care," she amended before looking up at him. "Why do you care? Why are you doing this? It's stupid. Let me leave as soon as I'm healed and you will not be in danger any more. That is the smartest route. Not getting to know me."
 
"Maybe I just have enough decency to not throw an already wounded person into prison where they have no chance of healing properly. You don't kick someone who's already lying defenseless on the ground." Khaal explained. How could it be that she had gotten treated so badly that she now couldn't trust people's good intentions?

"Once you're better I'll prepare an escort for you to the border. No one can arrest you for escaping your duties in another country. What you do after that is up to you." He then told her. If she stayed in the country or not was up to her, but it was probably best for her to disappear, so he would give her that opportunity.

"But what I do here in the castle is also up to me. So I'll try to get to know you the best I can until you're leaving. Let's get along, Anele." A big, slightly childish smile appeared on his face, so different from how the prince usually acted. He wanted her to relax more, to know more of the pleasures in life, so during their time together he would do his best showing them to her.

The door opened and Abigail came in with a new cart with food. Nothing was spicy, and the glasses only had water and drinks with very little taste.
 
She wasn't sure she understood the prince near her and that quite unnerved her. She watched him before turning her attention to the new cart and Abigail. Slowly she crawled out of the bed and moved cautiously to the cart, eyeing both of them as if they might try to grab her again. She looked at each food, brows creasing. She still did not know half of the foods and so she reached out and took a small bit of one and took a nibble. Bland. Good. She took a little more and then looked at the glasses. She took one and gave it a sniff and then took a dring. Water, yay! She took the plate and the glass and padded back over to the bed, sitting on it with her back to them, instinctively protecting her food from being taken.
 
Khaal chuckled as the girl started to eat happily. It seemed like they had found something that suited her. He gave the human maid a nod and without words he told her to take care of the girl. It would most likely be easier for Anele to trust Abigail considering they were both humans. The magic powers Abigail possessed, even though they were small, and the difference in treatment between the two would definitely create a rift between them, but with some time, they would hopefully get along.

The young prince left the girl and the maid alone and went to speak to his father. This was a matter he needed to get taken care of immediately. His father couldn't be so cruel as to turn a blind eye to the slaves. There were laws, and as a king, he would uphold them. It must be that he just were unaware.

"I suppose this tastes better than that fancy stuff, huh?" Abigail chuckled. The food was a bit too plain for her taste. She might not be on the level of the royal family, but even the slaves in the castle got some seasoning. Not much, but enough to give the bland food some taste. There were of course slaves who had jobs as food testers for the aristocracy in the castle, but that wasn't so much to make sure the food tasted good, it was to make sure nothing was poisoned. Usually they didn't eat enough to die of it. A taste mostly made people sick if it had poison in it, but a whole meal could kill. Though there had been a couple of incidents in which slaves had died just by a sip of the whine. It was most likely due to a curse rather than poison.
 
The young slave looked over her shoulder at the maid and then nodded, turning back to take another bite before swallowing. "It has little taste, which is what I'm used to. It is good," she agreed. She was quiet for a long time as she ate, thinking over what all had happened. "How... How long will I be here? How long will it take to get healed?"
 
Abigail wasn't bothered by the silence. As a maid it was sometimes her duty to just stand silently in a room as a shadow, waiting for the person she was attending to to decide their orders, or for something to happen that needed her immediate attention.

The girl eventually broke the silence with her question. "Well, that's a very individual thing, but generally humans are the slowest healing race. Though considering you can get medication that speeds things up here, it will probably go faster than the average person. A physician will come tomorrow to take a proper look at your wounds and also make sure that older wounds you might have has healed properly, then he'll give us suggestion on proper medication for you and an estimated resting period. If you follow his instructions properly, you won't have to stay longer than necessary. Oh, and don't worry, he's specialized on humans and hybrids, so he does know what he's doing."

The physician was a dwarf. He mainly took care of the lower class people for a cheap coin but he also had work at the castle. Even when abuse went on in the shadow of the castle, the servants always had to be patched up properly afterwards so they could do their job while looking healthy. Of course if there was a need for a long-term treatment, the servant was more often than not thrown out and replaced instead. They could have one, maybe a couple of days of rest at best, though that was pretty generous in comparison to what was happening outside of the castle walls.
 
Medication? She lowered the bread again into her lap and stared at it. This was all... so surreal. She couldn't even remember the last time she had been allowed to rest or recover fully from a wound or beating. Never, was probably the right answer.

Elena shifted a bit, wondering what it might be like to not feel the ache of pain at every moment. It had been a constant companion to her for as long as she could remember; reminding her that she was alive for one more day, reminding her of her place in the world at the feet of everyone and everything that wanted to stomp on her. The idea that one could live without pain was foreign and just.... odd.

She took another bite and then looked back at the woman again. "Is... Is he always that nice? It was... quite unusual."
 
Abigail tilted her head slightly with a questioning expression before realizing who it was the girl was speaking of. "You mean prince Khaalindaan? I don't think I have ever seen him act in any other manner. He takes after his mother in that aspect. No surprise there. Because of the queens poor health, she has been sheltered for most of her life and not known much if any of the cruelty in the world, and even with her poor health she decided to raise her son and teach him about the world on her own. She believed that it is a mothers duty and leaving it to the servants is a cruel punishment for a child even though it is the norm. You can imagine how that ended. Of course he knows more than she does as he has been taught proper history and other subjects by professional teachers, but as you noticed, what he knows is more the textbook facts. He is not aware of the differences between the books and the real world as no one has ever shown them to him. If he had been shown how the world worked from the very beginning, he would probably also have been taught that it's just how it is and there is no reason to change it, and that would have made him grow up to be just like everyone else."

The maid glanced with slight worry towards the door. "I do hope he has the common sense to stop himself from speaking to the king. There won't come any good out of it." All it would do was to crush his view of the world and his respect for his father and in worst case scenario it might also expose the escaped slave Anele. The king would most likely wonder why his son suddenly asked such questions and if he sent someone to look up what was going on, it would just be a matter of time before they were found out. They had to find a better way of hiding the girl. If they could trick everyone to believe she was a high class wizard whom was resting in the palace for a few weeks while giving them a visit during her travels, then maybe she would be safer, but that would give other complications if people wished for proof of her powers. There was no easy solution to the problem.
 
Elena looked back at her food and finished it off before getting off the bed and going to place the glass back on the tray before looking around as much as she could without taking her eye of the maid. Trust would not come easy for her. "What an awful way to live ones life," she said suddenly. "Believing in everyone and the facts that one reads, never looking past them or seeing that people are backstabbing and vicious. It would be better to have those qualities taken away and live with open eyes. You don't get hurt when you are betrayed."
 
Abigail shrugged. "But if you're never betrayed, you won't have to face that horrible truth. If his mother could go her whole life not knowing anything, how long do you think he could last? As a king he will be more heavily guarded than he is now and there are things never spoken about even though it's common knowledge, or maybe it is because it's common knowledge. If you hadn't come, there is a possibility that he would never have known, because once he takes over the throne no one will wish to tell him."

The council wouldn't tell him, because they knew that at this point he would be opposed to the ideas that was common place in society. It was in their best interest to keep him unaware. That woman had truly been a curse for them, creating a future king whom wouldn't know what's best for the country. They just had to make sure the next heir in line would be properly taught from birth instead of getting nonsense beaten into their head during their whole childhood.

"Make sure to get some rest now, I need to get some work done, but I'll come and check on you from time to time." Abigail bowed as if she was in the presence of a noble lady, then she turned and left.

One hour past without anyone checking in on her, then another hour. A third and a forth went by and first on the fifth the door was opened. The prince was standing in the door with a forced collected expression and paler than any ghost. "Excuse me for not sending someone sooner, you probably hasn't had much to do for a while." His voice was stiff as if he tried not to show any emotions. "We got some problems we had to take care of. The doctor will be here tomorrow to take care of you, then you'll go with him into town through the tunnels underground and stay with a friend of mine until you're better. The castle... It's not the safest place right now." Abigail was not with him, instead the other two maids were behind him with equally pale faces and much more telling terrified expressions.
 
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