The boards beneath her were unsteady and bouncing as Nicole tried to sit up. Her limbs were heavy with fatigue and the blankets over her were proving to be too much for her to lift or shrug off. She could hear murmuring voices around her, but she couldn't make out what they were saying or where they were coming from. As her memories of the battle drifted back to her she began to feel some concern for her safety, but mostly she felt bruised and sore. If my captor wanted me dead, she mused, I wouldn't be alive to feel the pain.
"I think she's awake." An unfamiliar, raspy voice announced.
"Yeah, I know, but she's not ready to be." This voice she recognized as Nancey's. "Help her back to sleep."
Nicole didn't remember anything after that point.
Nicole awoke some time later lying on the ground. She could feel a blanket under her and what were probably leaves or ferns beneath that. It wasn't particularly uncomfortable, but she felt as though she had been sleeping for a long time. She sat up and reached out to probe the surrounding sources. Sometimes this could provide a faster and more accurate picture of her surroundings than looking. She caught but the briefest of glimpses of the fire, and someone, probably Nancey, walking towards her. She reached out again and felt a coldness embracing the edges of her perception forcing her back.
"You lost. I won. You don't use any of that unless I say, and I wont say until I've shown you a few things first." Nancey didn't sound angry in saying that, it just came out as a matter-of-fact statement. "Now get some wood for the fire."
Nicole tried to see again, but nothing happened. Nancey raised an eyebrow at her. Feeling a little bit of panic, she didn't try to sense but assumed that there'd be fire to draw out of the camp fire. She tried to touch the flame and failed.
"Just stop it. You can't unless I say you can and I haven't said you could." Then with a bit of irritation creeping into her voice, "So stop it and get some wood for the fire." She suddenly grinned at Nicole. "I've always wanted a servant like you. And since you can see, you'll be perfect!"
Nicole couldn't sense or touch a source and the person responsible for it was treating her like a servant. What the hell was going on? Not certain how to react, Nicole looked around numbly for firewood. "You've already done it. There's a pile next to the fire," she observed.
"Oh, right." Momentarily pensive, Nancey replied with a smile, "I knew that."
Nicole looked around. They were still in the woods. They didn't seem to be near a trail, let alone a road. She briefly remembered the wagon but now she couldn't see any evidence of how it could have brought them to their current location. There were no tools near the fire and the fire pit itself was just an indentation with a pile of wood that had been set alight. She was still wearing her travel clothes-- full pants, tucked into leather boots, under shirt, over shirt, and a long-sleeved jacket-- but her tattered cloak lay in ruins next to her makeshift bed, she had apparently been using it as a pillow and it had fallen to the ground when she sat up.
Since she was entirely disadvantaged against her captor with neither sources nor weapons, she would have to play along until an opportunity for escape arose. In the mean time, perhaps she could learn Nancey's weaknesses.
Nicole's expression must have betrayed her thoughts. "You tracked me," Nancey began in a level voice with a sort of neutral smile. "You were going to kill me. I beat you. Your original contract is now void. I let you live in exchange for serving me. If you fail to accept this and try to attack me again, not only will I kill you, but you will die dishonorably. You accepted these terms the moment you attacked." Her voice remained level and patient, never losing her smile. "Submit. Now."
Nicole dropped her eyes and started off away from the fire, presumably to find a place to relieve herself. Nancey didn't bother to watch her or ask her what she was doing. Instead, she walked over to the fire, crouched down and started fiddling with the drawstrings of a small pouch she had been carrying somewhere on her person.
When Nicole returned to the campsite, Nancey had a small iron pot dangling from a tripod over the fire. And a steaming kettle was sitting on a piece of log next to the fire. Nicole had been gone but a few moments. Where was she getting these supplies? There was no pack, no boxes, nothing nearby where she might have stored the items she was now using.
Nancey fiddled with the strings of her cloak, Nicole could see that she no longer wore the dress beneath it, now it was a pair of sensible trousers and some sort of light shirt above that. But what she couldn't quite see was the pocket along a seem within the cloak. When she looked at it her eyes couldn't quite focus on it. Nancey reached into the cloak and started to remove items. Two small bowls, spoons, and a flask of some sort. They had all come from the seam in the cloak, Nicole was sure of it.
Nancey smiled again. Clearly delighted in being able to show off. "Let's establish some ground rules," Nancey began as she pulled a coin out that was attached to a thin leather necklace. "Catch!" Nancey underhanded the necklace and Nicole easily caught it.
As Nancey began to speak again, the coin grew warm in Nicole's hand. "While you are under my tutelage, you are not to volunteer anything about the nature of any magics or sorcery that you learn. Anything that you learn is not to be shared with anyone without my say so. If I am unable to grant my permission due to some peril and you truly believe that revealing something you have learned will save my life, only then are you free to share, but only the absolute minimum necessary to ensure my safety. And you are never allowed to verbally ask my permission to share anything."
The heat of the coin wasn't unpleasantly warm, but it was getting warmer as Nancey's speech finished. "Do you agree to these terms?" There was a bit of a wicked daring in Nancey's eye, but Nicole missed it because she was too distracted by the curious talisman.
Image source: me. I couldn't find one that worked on Pixabay and feeling inspired by the horrible art contests that @erodedthoughts has been doing, I figured what the hell.