Jorella, but...

Jorella jumped for joy. "Yes! Ha, I knew I'd win!" she gloated. "Take that, bitch! Who's the top dog now?" The merchant had seemingly forgotten about what she'd been bidding on and was more proud of beating Sally at the auction. Sally, meanwhile, was red-faced both with frustration and embarassment for having failed to secure her mistress's safety. She looked apologetically at Hilda, who was still kneeling on the ground cradling Silvia.

Grugluh had finally gotten her wits about her once the excited bidding war ceased. She asked, "And you're sure you want to give me everything just to take these two poor souls with you?"

Jorella nodded, though as she looked at the pile of her things she'd deposited in front of the goblin, it struck her that she may not have thought this through. "Yes, that's right."

"Including your clothes?"

"Oh, uh..." Jorella had forgotten she'd thrown her current outfit in as collateral. She stammered, "Yes, right. Let me just leave it in the caravan and take my product with me. Uh... pleasure doing business with you, Miss... um... you." The merchant nervously backed into the caravan and shut the door to give herself some privacy.

Grugluh shook her head and turned to Hilda and Silvia. "Well, I don't quite understand how this happened, but I suppose we'll be parting ways," she said. "I wish you two the best in... whatever it is you're trying to do."

Both slaves nodded and looked at each other. This seemed an appropriate time to get to their feet, but they weren't quite sure if that would be permitted by their new mistress. That, and they had suddenly developed a strong sense of shame for their nudity with all the attention they'd garnered, so they preferred to stay as covered up as they could be. Also, their necks were still tied to the fence, and that made standing up rather difficult.

Sally was doing perhaps the worst of everyone present. After months apart, not knowing what had become of her, she'd finally stumbled upon her mistress and crush in the most unlikely of circumstances. And yet she'd failed once again to save her from some lowlife trying to exploit her for their own gain, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Unless there wasn't. Sure, she'd failed to purchase Hilda for herself, but she wasn't about to let her crush get taken away again. Who knows what could happen to her out in the cold, hard world! No, she would make sure to accompany this merchant and keep her lady safe, no matter what.

Jorella reemerged from the caravan, carrying her previous clothes and now sporting a gown made from a light, flowy material that made her look like she was draped in fog. She placed her clothes with the rest of her former belongings and said, "Well, that's the last of it. Now I'll just get the rest of my stock and be on my way." She looked down at Hilda and Silvia. "You two, help me get the rest of the silk out of the caravan. There's a wagon behind the inn we can use to carry it all instead."

"Wait!" Sally cried. Hilda and Silvia were shocked away from their attempts to untie themselves from the stable, and Jorella almost jumped out of her fragile dress from fright. "I-I'm coming with you. I shan't leave my lady alone again."

Jorella snorted. "Missy, I won these two fair and square, and I don't need some hanger-on to follow me around all the way to the capital. Unless you've got something that'll make this worth it, you can beat it."

Sally thought for a moment. There were a lot of things she still had that she could trade for her time, which this merchant sorely lacked at this point. But something told her this woman was too proud to accept a deal like that from someone she'd just beaten. It seemed too much like charity. But Sally had another idea. There was one thing she could offer Jorella that wouldn't invalidate their deal, and that was...