Hybridization

Chapter 152 – Feline Distribution System

“No, you can’t force people to sign magical contracts over the internet. That would also be a terrible idea since not only would customers be forced to follow the rules but so would we.” Legal counsel for Meta, moments before he was fired

Kurt stepped into the small, containerized building that had ‘Containment 1’ painted on the side with a stencil. The interior was mostly what he expected, a whitewashed space with some fluorescent lights overhead and a wall mounted heat and A/C unit. The room was divided into two halves with the door opening into the middle of the room. In that middle space was a desk with a couple chairs and a cabinet, all of which looked to come from an office supply store that went out of business a few decades back. On either side of the desk area was a holding cell.

The cells were fronted by a clear, ballistic glass, wall with a sliding door set within it. They were completely bare except for a bench that ran along the walls and a toilet/sink combo in one corner. Sitting on the bench was the strange woman that Kurt and his team had captured.

The woman stood up and walked over as they entered then knelt to Kurt as he stopped in front of the speaker grill in the glass wall. “Master.” She said.

Kurt shared a look with Jay who just shrugged while looking only slightly amused. “It’s Kurt. My name is Kurt.”

“Yes, master Kurt.” The woman said still bowed forward.

“Can you stand up? What is your name?” Kurt wanted to see her face and get her reactions to… and she was crying again.

“I am called Rindi, master Kurt.” The woman righted herself and seemed to hesitate on whether or not she would wipe her eyes and cheeks, she eventually went with it and ran her sleeve over her face. Kurt took that opportunity to get a good look at her.

She was tall, a few inches taller than him and built more heavily than even Kristi, though the dragoness was more lean than the miss universe thing that Rindi had going on. Her hair was brown in color and cut to what he thought was shoulder length if not for being pulled into a bun. Her skin was a little darker than Kristi, making her look more like someone from Asia if not for her abnormal stature. She was wearing a tunic-like shirt over a heavy weight skirt that hung to her knees.

“Ok, what’s with all this master bullshit?” Kurt put his intended line of questioning on the back burner to get this out of the way. He didn’t know why she was calling him master or why she was crying. Was it to get leniency? A cultural thing perhaps?

The woman looked confused and her eyes stopped watering for a moment as she sniffed. “You have become my master. My contract was transferred unto you as I am- was the property of Garik, the dwarf you slew, we all were. When you defeated him, the law of the victor took effect and I became yours and… and m-my time re-re…”

She looked like she was about to cry again and was choking up. Kurt made a logical leap and tried to finish her words. “Remains?” That had to be it, right?

“Reset!” She blurted. The tears were once again running down her face but now it looked to be more from anger than sadness.

“Swing and a miss.” Jay commented from the corner of his mouth.

“I had to try something.” Kurt tried to defend himself. Then he went back to watching the woman wrangle her emotions enough to take a deep breath and center herself.

“So, I don’t know how all that works but I don’t have anything showing you as my slave.” Kurt said bluntly. “I didn’t get any contracts or anything and I am pretty sure the corpse doesn’t have anything like that.” He recalled the dwarf was wearing a chain shirt, sturdy clothes and had a spear but not much else. He didn’t even have a bag or pouch on his waist.

“Look to your arm. It is on your skin that my ownership is noted.” She gestured at Kurt and he remembered that he had felt a stinging sensation immediately after the fight.

Kurt unzipped his sweatshirt and pulled his arm out of the sleeve, the cuffs being too tight to roll it up to just below the elbow. He saw there was now a tattoo like mark on his arm, showing in an off white color that seemed to shimmer slightly. When he tried to focus on the design, it darkened and had the words ‘slave contracts owned’ in a language he could only read thanks to the translator. He then saw that below the heading there was the name Rindiund Halskier followed by ’10 years’.

“Rin-di-und Hal-skier?” Jay said while tilting his head to read the script.

“Hals-kier.” She corrected through a sniffle.

Frowning, Kurt took his sweatshirt the rest of the way off and dismissed it into his ring. “How do I dispel the contract?”

“Master?” Rindi asked, looking confused.

“How can I get rid of the contract? And for that matter, were you forced to attack me? You mentioned that there were other slaves?” Kurt rattled off all the questions that were suddenly popping up in his head.

“Wait, wait!” Val called from the door where she was helping a very unsteady-looking Kristi into the room. “We want to hear too.” Penny followed them in, and Jade was hot on her heels, but she paused long enough to wave her team off from the already cramped room.

Kurt looked over and saw there were only four chairs and brought them over so Kristi could sit. The dragoness tried to refuse, saying she was fine, but Val ran the chair into the back of her knees and pulled on her shoulder. Kristi sat with an indignant huff as she was forced into the chair but made no move to get up. Jade somehow ended up with a couple extras and passed them into the room so everyone had a seat.

After everyone was in a chair, except for Rindi who was just kneeling where she had stood and was sitting on her heels, Kurt began. “Start from the beginning. Who are you and where are you from? Drop the master nonsense while you’re at it.”

“I am Rindiund Halskier from Talth.” She clammed up then, her eyes still downcast to the floor. It looked like she wanted to say more but held off.

“Okaaaayyy… how about this. What are you?” Kurt wanted to know about the slave thing and how to get rid of it. If it was a contract that could be annule…

“I am a half breed.” Rindi answered, hanging her head as she answered.

“Great, welcome to the club.” Kurt drawled. “I was asking about the slave thing. How did that happen?”

“If she is from Talth, she is likely a criminal that was sentenced into indentured service to pay for her crimes.” Kristi said before Rindi could answer. “It is a common practice and helps recoup some losses for some crimes. You should have a… ah, there it is. The tattoo shows who you own and for how long. I think they can transfer in some situations.”

Kurt looked at the mark on his arm. “So that is how I got it from that Garik guy.” He then looked back up to Rindi. “Sorry about killing him.”

“Why?” she seemed utterly taken aback at the statement.

“Uhh, because you looked like you cared for him a lot and were upset at his death…”

Rindi frowned before she suddenly shook her head. “No. I became distraught due to the resetting of time. I had but a few days before I would be free.” Her tone had developed a little growl as she spoke and Kurt could see her muscles twitching in her neck and shoulders.

“What were you convicted of?” Kurt asked. “To be sentenced to slavery I mean.”

“I took shelter in a shed to wait out a winter storm. I lit my lantern for warmth and light, but the storm blew the door open and knocked the lantern over, spilling the oil and burning down the shed.” Rindi said through clenched teeth.

Kurt had a feeling he knew where this was going. “How long have you been serving this ten-year sentence?" he wasn’t sure he wanted to know the answer but asked anyway.

“Forty-seven years. You are my sixth master.” She answered curtly.

“What! That is the most fucked up thing I have ever heard.” Immediately turning to Kristi, he asked the first question that came to mind. “How do I break a contract like this?”

The dragoness frowned as she considered, but it was Jay who had answered first. “You don’t. If you want it to be broken, you have to go to a magistrate’s office in a major city on Talth. There you can have it annulled or marked as completed based on a number of factors. You can also sell or transfer it if you prefer but that doesn’t reset the clock like the law of conquest on that planet.”

Kurt looked from the demon to Rindi then back again. “So, either she is stuck with me for ten years or I have to schlep my way across the realms to have some bureaucrat rubber stamp her papers and let her go free?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t call the magisters bureaucrats, they are priests of a religion based on law and order, punishment and reward. Its actually pretty balanced, normally, so I am surprised that this loophole exists.”

At that point one of the Order personnel popped into the room and gave them an update about the local police activities. Apparently, they had made a couple slow passes around the warehouse, spotlights shining toward the doors.

“Master, what did he say?” Rindi asked as the Order employee left.

Kurt swiped a hand down his face, having just noticed the discrepancy in her words versus her mouth. “Course, she doesn’t speak the language.” He muttered before looking back up to her. “All your history and misfortune aside, how did you even function in this world if you don’t know the language?”

Rindi then began to recount the story of her latest master and how he had brought them to Earth for the contract on Kurt. She told of how they had picked up the contract in one of the cities on Askenet that had an intermittent realm bridge to Earth. Apparently, her former master had been approached by an individual who had overheard him looking for a large contract.

Her greedy master had instantly jumped on it when learning that the target was just some half elf. She also recounted how she had tried to talk sense into them. “I tried to warn them about what I felt when we bumped into you.”

“That’s it!” Kurt snapped his fingers. “I thought you all looked familiar.”

Val tilted her head then realized what he was talking about. “Oh, we bumped into you on the corner. Looks like we should have pushed a little more on that feeling Kristi had.”

After they had a little moment to reflect on the strange encounter, they went back to business. “Who gave the contract originally?” Kurt asked.

“Some human. I didn’t see much more since I was told to wait by the door and only got a glimpse through the window.” Rindi said.

“Ok, and who was your contact here? If this was your first time in one of the upper realms, I have to imagine that you had help getting around. Too much would have been strange to you.” Kristi pressed.

“We used the welcome center?” Rindi looked very confused. “They gave us a small book that had the information on local customs and technology.” She held up her hands to show the shape of a small booklet.

“Oh, right, those are open now.” Jay said idly. “I forgot that we had pushed for those to be reopened once the laws were found unconstitutional. It’s pretty much customs for other realms with an information desk. Unfortunately, we lost the bid on the contract to Dinas Group who already run similar sites around the world.”

“So, anybody can just waltz over a bridge and do as they please after signing in at the guest book?” Kurt clarified.

“Oops.” Jay shrugged.

“Oops?”

“Look, they have a screening using a truth stone and they have the active warrants copied from the connecting realms. Sure, a few bad apples might slip through, but are they any worse than the ones already here?” Jay waived his hand through the air dismissively.

Kurt pointed a finger at Rindi. “She was literally brought here to kill me.” He ignored her mumbled comment about how she knew it would be futile attempt.

“Business trip, likely even legitimate based on what I am hearing and know about the bounty system on Askenet. Can’t completely kill all inter realm travel.” Jay remarked casually.

Turning back to Rindi, Kurt pressed on with his questioning. “Who was your contact here? You mentioned a contact that you called on the phone.”

“I didn’t know his name, but he was pretty tall.” Rindi said. “Human by his smell and appearance. He was rather large with broad shoulders and short blonde hair.”

Jay summoned a tablet and tapped at it as she spoke. “This guy?” he asked. He was showing a picture of a mug shot for Felix.

“That’s him!” Rindi said with some surprise. “He arranged our travel and lodgings and gave us your picture. He also told us where you would be and how to intercept you.”

“Well, I guess that might help when we finally get him to talk.” Jay said and dismissed his tablet. “I can give you the report after the interrogation, Kurt.”

“Alright. Anyone have any other questions?” Kurt looked at the group and saw most of them shaking their heads no. “Jay, I guess she goes with you? Not sure what to do with her.”

Before Jay could speak, Rindi spoke up in a rush of words. “I can’t go with him.” Panic had set in on her face and she looked genuinely afraid.

Kurt looked to Jay who nodded and snapped his fingers. “Ah, right, the slave contract. It has some limitations. If I remember right, the only place you can ‘leave’ her is on property you own or your domicile. If she is not on property you own, then she must be within…” He thought for a moment before turning to Rindi. “How far is the distance set?”

“100 furlongs before the compulsion takes effect.” Rindi answered.

“Furlong?” Kurt asked, completely confused at the unit of measure.

“I assume a Taltherian furlong?” Jay asked, getting a nod from Rindi. “So, about 250 yards which means her maximum distance from you so about fourteen miles. A little more actually.” Jay said.

“Why would anyone put that restriction in place?” Kurt groaned.

Kristi was the one to answer him this time. “Because some people leave their indentured slaves at home to work or whatever duties they assigned. Others take them as they travel for various reasons from bed warming to guardianship.” She sighed, a frown on her lips. “You are responsible for her and that distance was set so you can have her run errands on your behalf or otherwise be out of sight but not too far away.”

“What does the compulsion do?” Kurt asked, not expecting to like the answer. He was starting to feel really bad about her situation and wasn’t even holding a grudge about the attempted murder since she was literally ordered to by her last master.

“Same as if I disobey any other order.” Rindi answered then continued when Kurt rolled his hand to indicate she elaborate. “A sharp pain in the back of my head followed by the feeling of nausea if I don’t comply. Then it progresses to magical strangulation unless I am moving to return or follow the order.”

“Wha-what happens if you still don’t comply?” Kurt had to pause to swallow some of the bile rising in his throat at the thought.

“The punishment persists until resolved.”

“FFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUCCccccccckkkkkk.” Kurt groaned again into his hands, not so much muffling the sound as just distorting it.

While Kurt was having an internal crisis about now being a slave owner, Kristi decided to get some useful information. “Rindi, what are your standing slave orders?”

“I will not harm my master nor allow him to come to harm through neglect. I will not harm his household or property, and I will obey all commands, mistress.” Rindi answered.

“It’s Kristi.” The dragoness replied. “When you say all commands, do you mean all or…”

Rindi once again adopted a confused expression before suddenly realizing what she was getting at. “Yes, mistress Kristi. Though that had not occurred due to my… heritage.”

Val perked up. “And what heritage is that exactly?”

“Mistress…”

“Just Val, Rindi. Don’t call me mistress...” Val shuddered. “It gives me the creeps.”

“My mother was a Valkyrie, and my father was some sort of felitaur as best I can guess.” Rindi’s expression was once again turning toward despair as she tried to shrink in on herself.

“Was?”

“My mother died when I was young and I never knew my father. I was… not well conceived.”

“Not well conceived…” Val muttered to herself before Kristi nudged her.

“Her mother was raped.” Kristi informed her, before turning a much softer expression to the woman in the cell. “Rindi, you had another form before. Can you explain that?” Her formerly clipped but neutral tone had softened to something expressing concern.

Rindi stood up in her cell. “I have some of the abilities of my mother’s line. I can summon my mantle and walk below this reality where the souls of men are clear.” Her eyes flicked to Kurt who was now sitting in a forward leaning position with his elbows on his knees. “Unlike a real Valkyrie, my mantle is not of feathers.”

She then blurred as a cape and open front skirt that looked like someone had skinned a tiger for them appeared draped around her shoulders and hips. That cape then flared out above and behind her to reveal that it wasn’t a cape at all but a set of wings.

The wings were large, spanning nearly as much as a gargoyle’s and membranes stretched under the leading edge like a bat but with a short fur that showed the tiger markings. Along with the upper wings, the lower set also extended from the small of her back, though to a lesser extent.

Hanging from between the lower set of wings was a long tiger striped tail that flicked back and forth nervously. Her hands and bare feet had grown some fur atop them but remained humanoid in shape. Her human ears also vanished, replaced by a set of rounded tiger shaped ears that sat a little higher on her head, poking through her hair.

Despite striking an impressive figure, Rindi stared at a spot on the floor. “This is the form in which I battled your shadow mage. It is also what allowed me to strike at you without being seen. Of my three forms, it is the most apt to hidden attacks.”

Kurt’s eyebrows knitted together in confusion. “You look like any other felid demi-human I have seen other than the wings. And what do you mean by three forms?”

“M-master, per-perhaps I may show you?” Rindi asked, her eyes locking onto him and the pupils blowing out before suddenly narrowing. She focused intently on him in a way that made it look like she was seeing something nobody else could.

“Go ahead.” He nodded, ignoring the master thing. He was still coming to grips with the situation and trying to focus on anything other than the impending presence of another person in his house for who knew how long. He didn’t mind a guest, but ten years on a contract was a very long-lasting guest. Before he could get back to giving himself an ulcer from worrying, Rindi once again blurred out of focus and began… shrinking.

The wings vanished, both upper and lower pairs seeming to shrink into her while she herself began rapidly losing mass. Kurt thought that might not have been the right description as she wasn’t so much losing mass as she was redistributing it. Her body lengthened and stretched in strange ways over the course of a couple seconds until she snapped back into focus.

Kurt wasn’t sure what to expect. The only member of a ‘taur’ species he had met was a centaur and based on Rindi’s humanoid height, he was somewhat expecting a similarly imposing stature. Instead, he got something that was…not at all what he predicted.

Rindi’s previous height of the low six-foot range was now less than Val’s and even Anna’s. She was now about five-foot-three and significantly slimmer than before with much of her muscle mass having vanished. She was now wearing a significantly oversized tunic that was hanging off one shoulder while the skirt was hanging over her front, going past her knees to mid-shin while the back was draped over the tiger body that had appeared.

There was about six feet of tiger body stretching from behind her front hips… shoulders? Either way, it was significantly smaller than a normal tiger but still retained the general shape and build, along with the long swishing tail that was curling and flicking behind her. Kurt had come to recognize that as cat body language for ‘unsure’.

Kurt then restarted his head-to-toe evaluation and noticed that her human ears were missing in this form too and the pair of rounded tiger ears were still sticking out of her hair. Her bust had also shrunk to match her smaller frame, and she was having some support issues, judging by how one of her arms was now going across her chest. Her skin on her arms, shoulder and the back of her neck was also slightly fuzzy like Anna but sporting a faint tiger stripe pattern like the rest of her.

Somewhere along Kurt’s third look over at the strange woman, Rindi sat down… well, half of her sat down he would say. While it looked like she remained standing in the front, her rear legs sat on their haunches like a cat or dog would, the tail flicking around to lay over her front feet.

“HA, it’s like a mullet.” Val chortled. When everyone stared at her in confusion, she elaborated a little. “Business in front relaxed in back.”

A moment later a round of ‘ahh’s’ and some chuckles went around the room. The stupid joke seemed to break some tension and Rindi visibly relaxed, the stress melting from her shoulders, both sets of them. In fact, everyone seemed to have relaxed from what was formerly an interrogation and had become more of an interview.

“So which form do you prefer?” Kurt asked, curious since she wasn’t a traditional shapeshifter like changelings who were typically comfortable in any form.

“This one or my winged form, master.” Rindi answered then elaborated after hesitating for a moment. “Th-though it is not exactly convenient for many common amenities and locations that are not designed for the species. So, I don’t spend much time in it and my previous masters didn’t like to see it, so I only used it when alone or on night watch.” Kurt noted her voice had changed a little and now had a slight rumbling undercurrent.

Kurt could see how hard it would be to stay in that shape. Cars, furniture, even bathrooms were all designed for bipedal creatures or at least not things as large as the felitaur woman.

“You are a little on the small side, aren’t you?” Kristi asked. “I have met a few felitaur and they were typically larger.”

Rindi nodded. “Yes, mm-Kristi. I think that is because of my half breed heritage.”

“Hybrids are what we call them.” Kurt said before turning to Jay. “Besides all this, what do we do with her?”

Jay hummed for a moment, tapping a finger against his chin as he thought. “Hmmm, looks like there is only one thing we can do. If you don’t want her as a slave, then I better get moving on that trip to Talth I have been planning. We could probably get there this year.”

Kurt fought the urge to grind his teeth. He failed. “And in the meantime?”

“Looks like you now have a fourth team member. Better start training her, ‘master’ Kurt.” Jay laughed and summoned a portal. He quickly disappeared through it and snapped it shut, only allowing half the chair that Kurt threw at him to make it through.

“Fuckin prick.” Kurt muttered before turning to Penny. “Better get this door open. Looks like we have a long drive ahead of us and she has to come with.”