The corner was rounded at a full run and sent her tumbling to the stones in a heap of flesh, bones, and silk. Long, dark hair was in a mess about her face and eyes had gone wide from the harsh spill against the ground from her misstep. Scrapes and bruises to her shins and heels of her hands

The man and woman who had seen her for what she was and wanted her sort out of the city were not far behind. Ctesra could hear their angry voices and string of curses. Curses at and upon her, without doubt of it.

She was too her bare feet with the cold of the air chaffing her flesh and making joints hurt. A toss of her head back threw hair over her shoulders as she stumbled to her feet and bolted towards the brown building. The door she hurried through and shoved closed with her lithe, small form.

Panting breaths loud on the air, she moved a step to the side of it enough not to be hit with the door and collapsed to her knees. White silk seeped about her sides and thighs, causing her to shiver with the cold that still gnawed at her body. The darkness was around her, unseeing anything at first as she listened to the street beyond the closed door. She fell back to her barely clad backside, causing hems to scatter high and her shoulders to meet the wall. She turned her head and strained to listen for the man and woman who had in hand stones and worse to be rid of her.

Footfalls passed very close enough to frighten her deeper into the building. She had never been there and stumbled with the next few steps. Dashing towards the nearest table and beneath it, she forced herself as still as possible. As her small heart hammered against the cage of her ribs, she strove to hold her breath. On her hands and knees beneath the table, in the dark of the shadows, she kept herself and waited for them to come inside and hoped against odds that they would see nothing of worth and leave by that same way.

Mirth was heard, but it was nothing that eased the girl. Tinted, marked flesh of her face lowered so far and so swiftly that she nearly blackened her eye against the floor with as hard as she hit it. Gooseflesh grew and fled over her diminutive form, shivering beneath the sound of words that offered no assurance, despite their formation.

But the danger seemed more prominant elsewhere. To have hid longer would have possibly invited trouble. Worried eyes through the fall of dark hair that pooled against the floor flickered to where she could see him standing, but the table's top kept what there was of him from the waist upwards hidden. She looked towards those boots, then flicked frightened eyes through the dishevelled veil of her hair towards the direction of the door.

Out from beneath the table she crept without the faintest hint that she might stand. Instead she moved on all fours until she was to his left, a lesser place at any Master's bearing. Her knees spread widely in the knelt posture and bent herself forward until her face was imediately beside his left boot. Not even the curv of her cheek touched that boot, just a inch shy of it. Her arms swept backwards and turned over to put the back of them against the floor beside her knees.

Her heart rattled like a rabbit's in a trap it could not spring free of. Breaths she had held earlier couldn't be held within her lungs anymore, but still kept as quiet as she could.

The turn of her face brushed her chin against the floor but she didn't rise. Scattered over her head were dishevelled lengths of brown. She pulled her gaze away from the closed door as the room slowly brightened.

She didn't understand what he meant of RPS, but she gathered swiftly that he meant that she had been what was delivered. The dingy, white silks barely clad the back of her as she knelt deep enough to brush her mouth very briefly against the floor before her cheek met that same spot with a turn of her head. Hair covered most of her gaze and draped like a haphazard blanket against her face, neck, and shoulders.

It couldn't have been more than a moment but the girl felt as if an eternity had passed. The smallest stir of the cold air forced another shiver from her. Sounds of the building were listened to and for, but the thoughts of it fell away to know that he towered over her. That gaze was felt like a rake scraping her flesh.

Cold drifted about her and rested her heavier by the moment until she shook from it. "ctesra was the name allowed when born, Master."

She wanted to bury herself, beneath anything. There should never have been so much attention on her. A slave was to be as much a part of things as dirt to a road, or shadows to a room.

Acutely she heard every footfall, making her heart skip a beat each time. Long hair scattered about her face and the floor hid her face from his sight.

"Nineteen years, Master."

It startled her that he knew that she was born to what she was. Thousands would not have known it for certain. Some might have guessed it, but it would have only been that. A guess.

Her hands that were at either side, turned at the wrists to put the backs of them to the floor and palms upwards moved slightly with her fingers curling nervously in on themselves then opening again.

The floor had to be clean. The counter top had to be clean. Everything about the bar had to shine for her Master. Ears were twitching all the while, keeping a listen out for a call from her Master or a disturbance. When the Great Hall was entered her head shot up to peer over the bar top. Tails of three lightly twitched as fire orange orbs slowly turned towards the office door. When it snapped open she felt a twinge of something before her Master stepped out.

Standing slowly she bowed low to her Master before her hands went back to work. Glasses to be polished, counters to be waxed and cleaned to a perfect wooden shine. Everything had to be perfect, nothing less would be better for her Master. When the house lights went up she blinked, shifted slightly as those orbs of fire went back on her Master, taking in his illuminated figure for a moment and bowing her head again. Once more she returned to work.

A glass was taken in her hand as she began to polish it slowly. Hair draping over her back in a clean braid to keep it from covering her face and keeping it in view. As the cold chill engulfed the hall she shivered slightly and cast a glance towards the girl and her Master. Glass was set down and another was picked up and polished quickly. Again the process was repeated as ears remained tuned, not listening to her Master?s business, but waiting for her Master?s summons. For now her orders were to make the bar perfect. Everything she did for her Master had to be perfect.

"Begged?" He said darkly, a smirk forming over his lips as he walked back in front of her. The dark chill swirling around him in delight, like children dancing around their father. "Tell me girl, what did you do that was so horrid that you had to run in here to hide?"

He stopped in front of her, leaning down. He inhaled the air around her slightly, taking in the scent of her body, as his eyes studied her form.