... Amethyst...
... Don't let them put you in the 'Useless' list...
... You need to show your potential to them... Even the slightest can get you out of this place...
... 'i can always run away after.' you said? Then this is the only way for you to escape...
... Now wake up... My daughter...
Wake up.
I Abruptly wake up from my sleep, instinctively looking around searching for someone in the cellar, but there's nobody except me.
What a strange dream I had, it was as if I really felt the presence of someone next to me. Someone familiar... A maternal presence.
Then, I look down. On top my lap, lays a flower, an white orchid. An orchid with lack of color, but right in the base of the petals is able to see the purple paiting up the flower in a very slow process.
I didn't have a flower with me, let alone an white orchid, how strange.
As I lift the orchid, I felt a shine in my neck, where exactly is the Orchids clan, but covered with makeup to hide it. I put my hand on top of it. Oh... I get it.
"...Mother..."
***
----
Today is the third day that Amethyst still kept in captivity inside of the Big White House, she was counting the days with the help of her small pocket clock since the place didn't have windows. she would talk and have conversations with the other creatures to pass time and know the place better, and the way Amethyst is analytical and observant, she already had evaluated some of them in her mind to know if they would be a 'Useful' or a 'Useless'.
***
----
As I was in my corner, doing nothing but thinking about how good it would be to be in the comfort of my house, with my concoctions and trinkets, in my kitchen full of food or in my bed, suddenly the entrance open, the light of outside invading and illuminating the dark place. All captives got surprised and startled with the sudden light entering the local.
A group of 7 people holding boards with paper and paintbrush enter in local with 18 guards behind them, they must be the appraisers. They step in with stoic faces, starting to walk towards the cellars, demanding the guard to open the cellar doors to start the evaluation.
It has not even been 2 minutes and I could already hear shouts or screams, cries and slaps. The negativity could be felt from here, with the appraisers using violence to dominate the people. it was sad, truly, but I couldn't stop grinning and giggling.
Focus, Amethyst, focus to avoid any further question making... I'm too lazy to respond many.
Then, it was my turn. I stand up and brush off the dust from my lower clothes, composing myself when the guard is in front of my cellar. He unlocks and opens the bar door, letting one of the appraisers enter. It's a woman with stoic and authority aura, with a pin of the Big White House on her chest area, and she was probably 2-3cm smaller than me, hehe.
***
----
The appraiser looks at Amethyst now that she's conscious, since she met her when she was being carried like a sack of potatoes by the thieves in the entrance of the place.
"Back straight, head high, good composure, lack of fear or shrink." The appraiser muttered as she writes down along with her physical features. "Dark blue long hair, sapphire eyes, almost pale skin."
The appraiser noticed the way this living being in her front neither didn't break the eye contact nor did feel intimidated by her presence like the majority of the other living beings, that fact caught her interest.
"I heard you giggling. Were you having fun of the pain of the others? Or were you imagining it happening to you?" Questions the woman. "Don't lie to me."
"No, I wasn't." Amethyst simply responded.
"Hm, I thought I was leading with a sadist, or a masochist, but that's not the case." She sighs. "Now. Name, age, gender, species and clan, if you're in any." Asked the appraiser.
"Amethyst, 19 years old, female..." Amethyst stops for a second, before continuing. "Human and no clan member."
The appraiser stops writing and gives the board to the guard next to her for a physical examination. She approaches Amethyst more closely, putting her hands on Amethyst's arm, hands, back, waist and leg.
"Toned muscular body for a woman, you must have done body training for martial art purposes, I guess..." The appraiser said, but Amethyst doesn't respond. "The forming calluses on your hands only confirm my theory."
The appraiser can feel the mild smell of herds and chemical substances in the living being skin, while in her hair was the smell of incense and some irrecognizable mixes of perfumes. It was like these smells were her second skin.
"So, you must be a scientist, or a doctor, or even an artisan... Interesting." She takes her hands away from the living being and retreats the board from the guard, starting to write down.
----
I stand tall and confident, still looking at the appraiser patiently waiting for any final decision or something similar. Is good to lie sometimes, because what if I could become harder to leave this place is this woman knew I'm a sadomasochist? If the woman knew about my clans, it would be possible for her to sell me in a night house!
The woman finishes writing down, glaring at me for a moment before leaving the cellar. "Take her, she's a Useful, and a very expensive one."
Finally! I'm gonna get out of here.
The guard nods and enters in the cellar, unlocking my wrist and ankle chains before roughly grabbing my wrists to tie them up with a rope, pushing me forward to leave. What a rude sewer cockroach.
I start walking until I stop in a queue, being the last of the row.
"Listen well, you all are in the 'Useful' list, meaning that you all will be sold as servants." Exclaims one of the appraisers. "The purchase of all of you is the Imperial Palace of the Emperor Takeru Ryota, The one hundred and third emperor of our kingdom, Janapares."
A lot of the captives gasp in shock and fear, starting murmurs and even sobs.
I had heard that work in the palace is like wanting to be in hell itself, but I don't believe much, it's just rumors, and I didn't heard one single worker of the palace complaining in that high level. Just with a good knowledge in Etiquette education and work well in the are you will be put is already enough to survive there.
I just sigh at the news, not at all affected. The door is opened for the queue, the guards ushering us to start walking and leave the local, leading us to a place that didn't even come to ours minds that we would go to.
----
And with that, Amethyst and the others are lead to were the carriages are to start the journey, becoming the new servants of Imperial Palace. What servant position will Amethyst be put in the palace?