Chamberlain's Struggles

Chapter 24

More and more Gelfling prisoners were brought in over the coming weeks.

With having the twins now, Sil was making sure to stay away from them. Any Gelfling that wasn't drained would see them as a target to use against any of the Skeksis, and what remained of the adults were to protect the young ones, as deemed by the Emperor.

At one point, Sil and La were passing by the newest batch of Gelfling slaves that had been drained already and were being taken to some part of the castle by the Slave Master.

Chamberlain was wanting to pay no mind to them, but there were two in particular that caught his eye.

His eyes widened when he did recognize his old friends of Byron and Wyneth among them. He had wanted them to be his servants if he ever saw them, but like this, they wouldn't even know him. But he still could get them to be his servants if he talked to the Slave Master just right.

"What's wrong, Sil? You look at those Gelfling slaves like there's something wrong?" La spoke up, snapping him out of it.

"I just... saw that two of them were the two that helped me out in the wilderness. I know they won't know me now, but I must get them to work for me." Sil said. "I will say that the young boy, Byron had taught me a lot out there and he was my friend. He got me out of the Gelfling prison when I was treated as a prisoner. And Wyneth did save my life when I was hurt, besides Byron, and she delivered Ka and Lil."

La understood what her mate was talking about. She had had her special share of Gelfling servants too.

Chamberlain had La take the twins and he went to talk to the Slave Master about the two in particular that he wanted.

The Skeksis only used Gelfling servants now only if their essence had been drained. But it was only a matter of time before they might kill all the Gelflings, drained or not. Because they feared the prophecy that had been found out about.

It was a good hard talk with SkekNa, but he did eventually let Sil have the two that he wanted. He returned to his mate with them. He did introduce her to them, though they didn't have a clue what was going on now.

As much as Sil had turned to mostly not liking Gelflings after what they did to him out there, he still held a special place within himself for Wyneth and Byron though.

He had them help out with carrying scrolls and papers around the castle. This was as good as it was going to get to just have them in his life again.

He even used some of his building skills that he had remembered and with their help, they made the twins their own bed. While they were small, they craved each other's body heat. Their crib was next to his bed.

La and Ekt even had certain beds and playpens made for when they watched them. If they were busy doing something where the twins couldn't be held, they needed some place safe to put them. Sil would never leave too long, as he would return within short times to make sure they were fed before he would move on to the next duty.

A good majority of the adult Skeksis did think about what they would want to teach the young ones as they would get older.

The number of them was holding at 15 now. They had lost Mal, Var, and Gra to death. Lach had been kicked out and who knows what would happen to him. They were down five since the beginning. But with Ka and Lil's additions, it made it a little better.
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Chamberlain got to keep Byron and Wyneth as his servants for two trines (years) before the Emperor officially declared that all Gelfling were dangerous and had to be destroyed.

There wasn't much he could do as he was forced to give them up by the Garthim Master and Ritual Master.

There were only very small collections of Gelfling from the wilderness now. It was clear their numbers were dwindling. But all that were brought in yet were drained and then killed.