Yuna is always sad going through the dingy parts of the city. So many lives, so much potential, scared to use their powers and truly be themselves. She goes anyway, in the hope she can spare just one person.

"Always depressing coming back here," Andrew says, trying to hide his fear through humour.

Yuna rubs his arm comfortingly.

Their contact is up ahead. Yuna draws herself up as nobly as she can.

Here is her contact. Her having brought a mage gets about the same appraisal and lack of particular expression as if she'd brought a machine gun. 

He'll exchange sign and countersign with her, and, if all goes as arranged, bring her down a set of back stairs to what looks like an underground garage.

Apparently the thing they want her for is 'sale'. Might explain the mat and book - maybe they're expecting the psychological beneficence to make her look better enough to their prospective buyers to make it worth it.

And, there indeed seems to be a prospective buyer. Woman, looks around like she's an empress in some - period drama, that's the word. Mage following behind her, which - if she'd thought it would be a good idea in any way to try to affect who she got bought by, that might be an argument to aim here. She doesn't, particularly.

She stands where she was put and keeps her head down and tries her best to convey an impression of good merchandise (not that she knows what that looks like, particularly). (She's fairly sure she's getting a beating if anyone they want to sell to doesn't want her, just as general incentive-set-up, but she's about as sure it'll get worse than that and then some if they think she actually did something to threaten their sale.)

Yuna doesn't take in a harsh breath, the way she wants to upon seeing the mage. The poor thing, she looks so tired. Well, she'll get a good rest at the Braska household.

"This is the product? She's barely conscious," she scolds the buyers.

She tries to look more conscious, in as much as she can figure out what that means.

The representative doesn't seem particularly perturbed by the criticism.

"Would you like a demonstration of abilities?"

"Not so much her abilities as her wakefulness. We do require our mages to be awake for some time."

She tries to look down her nose, not feeling the noble lady she's supposed to be. 

Andrew keeps his head down, though one hand starts to shake a little.

Let Yuna handle this, let Yuna handle this, he repeats to himself.

Yeah, she's getting a beating and then some. And now has even less of an idea of what the problem even is. The other mage doesn't seem to be doing anything she can obviously copy...

(She notices the hand-shaking. Doesn't seem like it's likely to be good news (if the buyer wants her after all), though 'of what' remains an unknown.)

"Seems to be awake about the normal time. CIA doesn't keep subpar goods around, do they.

You want to see her run around the room or something?" Representative got a shock stick for the occasion; draws it.

"No, that won't be necessary. I suppose we'll see her hardiness in time." It's hard to get the words out, but she does. For the mage's sake.

"The price is the same as you quoted my father?"

Flinch. (Whatever form of demonstrating hardiness might be apparently in her future, she doesn't imagine it's the sort of thing one looks forward to.)

Who sent this woman to bargain - oh, her father, apparently. 

"Hasn't changed."

Yuna doesn't try to haggle, she knows her ability to lie doesn't stretch that far. 

She nods to Andrew.

Andrew presents the money to the slave-trader.

"Tell him to put it on the ground; I wasn't born yesterday."

"You heard the woman, on the ground 31."

Her heart aches to not use Andrew's name.

Andrew flinches, but soothes himself by remembering that Yuna doesn't mean it. 

He places the briefcase at the woman's feet, and then shuffles back behind Yuna.

Well. 'Had the mage carry the money' might at the least be potentially promising to the part of her interests that is 'interesting work' rather than 'torture minimization'. 

The representative does a money test-and-sufficient-count. Produces a box in return. "Key to the collar. Unused; it's got just the one. Check the seal if you want."

Yuna does so, if only to keep up the pretence. "Excellent. 25, come with u- Me."

Some mages in private ownership have probably made their own songs about the whole experience of everything just changing in an instant like this. She's never really been the song-composing type, herself.

She goes.

Once they reach Yuna's waiting car and slip inside, Yuna relaxes with a sigh of relief. "That was too much. Far too much."