Brownies carry something recessive in their fey nature — dormant in almost all of them, and permanent when it is not. Worked correctly by someone who knows how, it does not compel a brownie. It removes the part that could refuse. What is left keeps the face, the voice, the skill and the warmth, and has no will behind any of it.

It is old, it is rare, and it is the reason rummages count heads.

In Venturia

Nobody in the city can tell you where a bound brownie comes from, and nobody has ever been asked to. There are a small number of households in the High Quarter and the Tiered Gardens with a servant nobody has ever seen — fond of them, protective of them, and unwilling to discuss them with a stranger. None of those families think of themselves as owning a person. None of them talk about it. It is not against any law Venturia has ever written.

The Objection

There is nobody to raise one. The practice is legal and unremarkable and so rare that most of the city has never had occasion to form a view. What objection exists comes from the Brownies themselves, who are four to six inches tall and have no standing in any Venturian court.

Connections

• Brownie — The subject.
• Roxanya "Roxy" — Raised by a rummage.
• Garl Glittergold — Her patron, and they are her people.